A Force to be Reckoned With
by Ohaeder
Summary: Ash is on top of the world, fulfilling his dream of becoming a Pokemon Master, yet he is still determined to train his Pokemon to even higher heights, when a man named Leon (OC), comes along who forces Ash to follow him into the past to save the world as he knows it. Will Ash be able to stop this new threat? AshxCynthia. Time Travel. Please R&R! Enjoy!
1. Through Time

***Grammar gets better in Chapter 3!***

**Alright people, this is my first fanfiction so play nice! I got this story in my head one day, and decided to write it out. Not sure how fast updates will be coming out, so you will have to be patient.**

**This story will be a very reviewed influenced story, meaning that I will read all your comments and try my best to forge them into the story, while keeping the plot that I have in mind central. Endless of course the demand is to outrages for me to even think about putting it in.**

***Important* I WILL reply to every comment AS LONG as I can reply privately. That being said, if you review anonymously, you won't get a reply. If a question is asked enough or central to the story enough, I will put it in the author's note of the next chapter.**

**Hope you enjoy!**

***Disclaimer* I do not own Pokémon. Enough said?**

**Chapter size: 5,731 words.**

"Leon!" Screamed a man voice, "I will not let you get away with this!" The man was standing at the foot of a colossal staircase. His long jean's were torn and rugged, some places even burnt black. The mans shirt wasn't fairing any better. It had a long slash from the top right shoulder down to bottom. Part's of it had blood dripping out of it. On top of his messy dark black hair stood a red hat. The mans gaze held nothing but frustration and anger, all directed to the man on top of the stairs.

The man - Leon - turned back and looked down, towards the man who yelled at him grinning wickedly "Oh, but Ash your to late, I already have gotten away with this." As he spoke, he lifted his hands to his side. As if to prove his point a dark oval, as black as a starless night sky, started to form behind him, growing in size until it was big enough to fit a Tyranitar. "You see Ash, you have failed the world."

Ash looked up into the man's neon blue eyes, he couldn't believe it. No, it was impossible. He couldn't have failed. It wasn't an option for him to simply fail. Then, what was this strange sense that was washing over him? For the first time in his life, he felt...Useless? No matter how hard he had tried to stop this man, he just could not push hard enough to actually stop him. For the first time in his entire life, he failed the world. He felt a small tear roll down his face.

Leon, seeing the man starting to break down simply smiled. He knew what the boy was thinking, and it made him feel good. The brat had been a pain in his side and though he tried to get rid of him, he was one problem that just kept coming back. He turned back walking closer to the black portal. As he was taking his last step in heard the sound of electricity sparking through the air. He turned back and looked back down. Ash's small companion, Pikachu the little yellow mouse Pokemon stood there shocking Ash over and over.

"Pi, Pika pika pi!" The small pokemon scolded Ash, sending another spark of electricity at the man. Strangely instead of yelling in pain, he did the exact opposite. He laughed.

"Heh, Thanks Pikachu! I needed that." Ash smiled, a look of ferocious determination replaced what once had been despair. "Leon this is not over just yet!"

Leon let out a small sigh, of course the boy would continue fighting, he should have expected it really.

A roar filled with agony and pain cut off his thoughts. Ash turned his attention towards the noise and felt a wave of despair flow through him, doubt once again consuming his mind. How was he supposed to stop a legendary Pokémon on his own? Dialga, the Pokémon of time itself, stood on all four of its legs towering over Ash like a skyscraper. The Pokemon was in pain, whatever Leon had done to it was taking it's toll. Then the battle it was going through with Ash's Pokemon didn't help it heal much either.

"Dialga" Ash heard Leon say "I must thank you, without you, this would not even be possible!" He laughed as if it was some funny joke. "Now finish them." He turned and walked through the black abyss. Almost as soon as he made it through the portal started to shrink. The portal was closing!

Ash had to do something quick, and as his luck would have it Brock, his long time friend appeared from behind him. The mans clothing didn't look much better than Ash's. His breathing was rugged and worn out but he would not let his friend be alone when he needed someone the most.

"Brock, we have to make it into that portal up there!" He pointed. Brock nodded and ran up beside Ash.

"And what about Dialga? How are we going to stop it?" Brock asked, his voice wavering slightly as he spoke.

"It's being controlled by Leon, he is the one we need to stop!" he quickly reached down to his two remaining pokeballs, that were hanging off his belt. The other three of his Pokemon were defeated by the legendary standing before him, and resting back in their own pokeballs. He tossed them both into the air, revealing two more of his faithful companions, Sceptile and Glalie. They both glared at the towering legendary Pokémon, not even wavering at the sight of the magnificent legendary standing before them.

"Alright guys, I need you to distract Dialga for me! I need to make it up to that portal!" They all nodded in affirmation and began a relentless assault on the legendary Pokémon.

"Come on out!" Brock yelled as he through his pokeballs. "You guys help Ash's Pokémon! After we make it to the top of the stairs, try to make it to the portal!" His Pokémon all nodded and joined in the fight. Ash and Brock quickly made their way up the stairs. They were almost to the top when a stray beam from Dialga exploded behind them knocking them both through the air.

"Brock!" Ash could only yell as he and Pikachu flew up the stairs, landing on the top of the platform. The portal was now only a little bit bigger than Ash. Looking down the stairs he could see Brock still attempting to crawl up the stairs, small streams of blood flowing down his face. "Brock! Are you okay? We need to hurry! The portal, it's starting to close!"

"Ash you go on ahead!" Brock said tiredly.

"No! I can't just leave you behind, you will die!"

"We will all be dead any way, if we allow Leon to get away with this!" As he said this, Ash noticed the spear columns behind him started to disappear out of nowhere. "Ash hurry! Don't worry, I will be right behind you!"

Ash gritted his teeth in frustration. Behind Brock their Pokémon were still in the heat of battle. All of their Pokemon were giving it their all. Ash felt a touch of pride in his Pokemon, seeing them fight against an impossible challenge with no fear. Even after the countless of battles that had to make their way to the top of this ancient relic, they still fought with all they had.

Suddenly his Glalie disappeared out of existence. _Oh no, it's already happing! The past was being rewritten!_ "I'm sorry Brock!" He yelled as he turned and ran into the still shrinking portal.

* * *

"Ring! Ring! Ring!" The sound of a alarm pierced the silent morning air. Ash's head shot up off the pillow, gasping for air. He quickly looked around, for anything that may be a threat. Instead he took in his familiar surroundings. He was in his old room, from where he used to live before he moved out. This was his old house. He moved to get off the small bed that he was on, but as his legs reached for the ground he immediately fell to the floor.

"What the?" Looking down at his now small body he realized what had happen. He had went back in time! His legs were a lot smaller than they were before; he had misjudged the distance and fallen to the floor. He slowly made his back to his feet, trying to adjust to the knew size of his body. Taking a step forward he stumbled a bit. How the hell did he walk with feet this small!? Looking across his room to mirror, he couldn't help the small smile that appeared on his face. _It's hard to believe that I was this small once._

After a few more minutes of adjusting to his body he made his way down the stairs, carefully holding the guard rail to make sure not to fall. So far nothing in house has changed from what Leon had did…._Leon! Where is he? I have to stop him from changing the future!_

With the new found urgency he rushed through the living room, and stopped completely speechless! He could feel a tear coming down his cheek. Standing before him was his mother. He had not seen his mom for a long while, ever since she passed away. To see her now standing in front of him, it felt like a dream.

"Mom?" he said in a raspy voice. His own voice felt foreign to him as he spoke.

Delia Ketchum turned around and gave a radiant smile, that smile she had always given to him. It made him swell with pride. He could take from that one smile that she was proud of him. Sadly, the smile quickly turned to a worried frown. "Ash, You're up early for once! Is everything okay dear?"

Ash looked at her a little confused. _She must not remember anything from the past! Err..mm or future? _He had to stop thinking about that, it would defiantly cause a headache. He walked up to her and engulfed her in a hug with his small arms tighten as hard as he could.

"Yeah mom I'm fine, I just had a bit of bad dream, that's all" He said letting out a small nervous laugh.

"Ohh, dear I'm sorry! Don't worry, I'm sure your new Pokémon that you get today will get your mind right off that!" She said grinning. She knew how much her son adored Pokémon, and him starting his adventure will get his mind off anything.

Little did she know, that bringing up Pokémon actually caused an internal war within Ash. _What if Pikachu doesn't remember me? Everything that the two of us have been through together, everything that we have done together? No, he has to remember! He went through the portal as well! So, he has to!_

"Oh yeah, my first Pokémon!" He feigned his excitement. "Got to go mom! I don't want to be late now do I! I will see you before I leave on my journey!" He yelled. Honestly, he didn't want to leave her so soon. Seeing her again was a miracle, but then again, if he had stayed he was sure she would question him about it. He quickly rushed out of his house into the blistering sun of Pallet town. As soon as he was out of sight from the house, he slowed down. If he still wanted to get Pikachu he had to show up late instead of early.

He made his way up the dirt road and up the hill, very slowly, to the biggest building in Pallet Town, Professor Oak's Laboratory. In front of the building was a large crowd of people cheering the name 'Gary'. Ash let out a sigh, _some things I guess will never change._

As he got closer he could start making out the familiar shape of his childhood friend Gary. He was dressed in his blue long sleeved shirt and blue pants. His hands were in his pocket, in his cool-guy pose. His brown hair defied gravity and stood up towards the sky. On his face was an arrogant smirk, that grew into a mocking smile when he saw Ash making his way up.

"Hey Ashie-boy, your running a bit late aren't you?"

"Oh, hey Gary, I am here to get my first Pokémon." Ash looked at him and couldn't help the wave of memories that flooded his mind. "I see you already got yours." Eying the small pokeball that he was tossing up and down in his hand.

Gary held up the Pokeball in his hand "Yep, I got the best Pokémon from my grandpa."

Ash smirked, may as well have a little fun with this. "Oh really!? That means you got the fire type, Charmander then right?" Of course he was kidding, in his mind all the types of Pokemon were the best.

"Eh, well no.."

"Then you must have gotten Bulbasaur, the grass type!?"

"Well, no I didn't but-"

"What!? I thought you got the best one?" Ash exclaimed. He almost started bursting out laughing see Garys frustration.

"Well you know what! The other two have already come by and took the last two pokemon! Their are no longer any pokemon for you to get!" He said smirking widely.

"WHAT!" Ash yelled trying to act as surprised as possible.

Gary smirk widen, he spun the pokeball on one of his fingers before catching it and returning it to his belt. "Well Ash I'll smell ya later, I have fans already waiting to meet me." He smiled arrogantly walking around Ash and towards the group of people waiting at the gate.

Ash sighed and shook his head. _How did I ever put up with that guy? At least he become bearable in the future. _He thought to himself. He turned back around and made his way into the prof. Oaks lab. The moment he walked in fear filled him, and doubts that Pikachu would remember who he was plagued his mind.

"Professor Oak!" Ash yelled into the empty hall. He could hear someone walking around in one of the rooms in the hall. A few seconds later the door open revealing the old face of professor oak. He smiled kindly towards Ash and made his way down the hall.

"Oh Ash, it's good to see you again my boy." The professor greeted, "But I was expecting you much earlier"

Ash laughed nervously, "oh, I kinda slept in this morning. Last night I was a bit too excited to fall asleep early." He could clearly remember the emotions that were running through him the first time he received his Pokémon. He would still get those feeling when trying to catch new Pokemon. "But now that I am here, I can finally receive my first Pokémon!" He said excitedly, but then noticed the frown upon the professor's face. "I can get my Pokémon, right?"

"Uhh, I am sorry Ash but all the starter Pokémon that I was giving out today have already been taken"

"What!" Ash feigned surprise "But professor, I have to get my first Pokémon today! Please there must be something you can do!'

"Well Ash, I suppose there is one Pokémon that I caught a few days ago. Although it is not a beginner Pokémon, and seems to be quite stubborn about most things. He's also not fully trained yet either."

Ash's smile widened knowing exactly what the professor was talking about. "I will take him! Please professor!"

Professor Oak let out a small sigh, he knew Ash from a young age and knew how stubborn the boy was. So he motioned Ash to follow him. "Right this way Ash, the Pokémon is in this room over here."

Ash followed him into a room that was filled with mechanical machines. He walked up to center pressing a small button on the side, revealing another compartment with a small pokeball bearing a small lightning bolt insignia on it. Ash couldn't stop the fear flowing back through him making his hands shake. _Pikachu, you have to remember._

The professor turned back around with the small pokeball in his hand, and noticed the small boy shaking in front of him. He smiled, "I see your quite nervous about receiving your first Pokémon." Ash nodded yes, although that wasn't the reason he was shaking so much, but rather if the Pokémon would remember him or not. "I remember when I received my first Pokémon as well; I was practically bouncing off the walls. Well anyway, here's your first Pokémon!" he said handing the ball to Ash.

Ash snatched the small ball away from the professor Oak and held it preciously in his hands."Is it alright if I release it right now professor?"

"I was actually going to ask you to do that, so please go ahead."

Ash wasted no time and clicked on the small button on the center of the pokeball. A red flash appeared out of the pokeball and out to the ground. Suddenly a small yellow rodent with large, black ears and red cheeks appeared. The small rodent looked around confused for a moment, until it noticed Ash looking at it with a bit of fear in his eyes. The small rodent yelled it name and released a small bolt of electricity that hit both Ash and the professor bringing them down to their knees.

"Whoa, that was a powerful electric attack!" Professor oak yelled.

'_No kidding! That hurt a lot more than it did the first time around! I wonder if Pikachu kept some of his strength.'_ Ash thought.

"Pikachu, what was that for!" he yelled to the small Pokémon. Pikachu glared at him and then pointed to the small ball in his hand.

"Pika! Pi pi chu!"

"Oh I'm sorry buddy, I won't put you in the ball again if you'd like?" Pikachu quickly nodded and smiled and jumped up onto his shoulder.

Professor Oak watched in amazement as Ash could work perfectly well with his newly acquired Pokémon. "Ash, you seem to be a Pokémon prodigy. The entire time I had that Pikachu, I could not get it to listen or stop shocking me!"

Ash let out a nervous laugh and scratched the back of his head; A habit he has had his entire life. "I guess so professor, Anyway now that I have Pikachu I can start my journey right?"

"Oh yes right away, but first let me give you this Pokedex." He said turning towards a desk against the wall of the room. Grabbing a small red object, that reminded Ash of a calculator, and handing it to him. "This will record all the Pokémon that you come across and file any data we have over them. A Pokedex is a trainer's best friend, well other than pokeballs and the Pokémon themselves; it will give you tips and details of Pokémon that are already logged."

"Oh wow professor thanks a lot!" Ash said trying to sound as excited as he was the first time. "So am I good to go?"

"Yes Ash you're good to go, though I suggest going home to see your mom before you actually leave on your journey."

"Yeah I think I will do that sir, thanks a lot for the Pokémon!" Ash said turning to leave from the building.

"No problem Ash, Tell your mom I said 'Hi' would you?" He said to Ash's retreating form.

"Alright Professor I will, Thanks again and see ya later." Ash said walking out the front door. As soon as he was a few feet away from the building Ash looked at Pikachu who was still residing on his shoulder. "So buddy, do you remember everything?"

"Pi!" Pikachu said nodding its small head up and down.

Ash smiled, all his worrying had been for nothing. "What about power? Do you feel as strong as you did before?"

Pikachu's ear fell to the side, and he looked up as if he was trying to think on it. "Pi! Pi ka ka chuuu" He said before jumping off Ash's shoulder and running up the path a little more. He stopped near a big rock, and jumped towards it. Suddenly his yellow and brown tail started shining to a brilliant white color, as he spun around and smashed his tail into the rock. It didn't stand a chance as it became dust by the intense pressure. Pikachu looked back at Ash and smiled, in which Ash returned.

"I guess you're still as strong as ever, that's good. We are going to need you at your best if we are going to beat Leon this time around." Pikachu's face turned serious at the mention of Leon. He nodded his agreement and jumped back up on Ash's shoulder.

"Hmm, I wonder." Ash though before trying something out. _"Hey Pikachu, can you hear me?"_ Ash thought. Beside him pikachu nodded his head

"Pika Pi." Ash smiled. He still had his Aura ability from before. He had learned to use the small form of Aura when he met his Lucario. Though all he ever really managed to do was talk to his pokemon through his head. Though he still could not actually understand their words, except when it came to Pikachu. That was there special bond.

"Alright buddy, we need to find out a plan though, we can think of one while heading to Viridian city, eh buddy?"

"Pi Pi!" was Pikachu's only reply.

* * *

"Grandma, these ruins talk about a war that happened long ago in the past." A long blonde hair woman whispered in awe, her smooth fingers tracing the rugged rocks of the ancient wall. She loved ruins and learning about the History of places she visited.

"It tells of how there was a group of men that believed that they could rule better than the current tyrant that was in power at the time." She stopped as she struggled reading the ancient language on the wall. "The tyrant was an evil, horrible man who punished anyone that disobeyed his corrupted plans or went against him. So this group of men went up to what they call the 'Altar of the Gods' and prayed to Arceus to help save them." She stopped again when she heard a loud explosion from outside, a huge cloud of dust shot through the door way.

A man with short gray hair ran in, holding the side of his stomach in pain, blood seeping through the crevices between his fingers. "Cynthia, its Leon! His men are here, we must leave now!"

The woman now known as Cynthia looked towards the older man in worry, "We have to delay him! This may be our only chance to find out what he is up to!" she turned back to the ruins of the wall and started reading with haste. She was the only one that could read the ancient language, and as much as she would rather be outside helping fight, she was need here.

"You must hurry then Cynthia, we will try to stall them for as long as we can! If they get in here do not wait for us, chances are we will be gone by that time. You must escape; you are our last hope in stopping this threat!" The old man said, gasping in pain.

"I will go with him" Said Cynthia's grandma. "My help out there will do more good than in here." She said with tears starting to flow freely down her check. She was not an idiot; she knew that this would be the final fight for her. If it would give her Granddaughter another day of life, she would gladly give up her own.

"And know that we will both always love you." Her grandpa said before both of them turned and walked out of the ruins.

"Thank you grandpa, grandma, I will not let you down!" Cynthia whispered a small stream of tears now flowing down her cheeks. She hated having to stay here while her family was out there protecting her. When Cynthia was young, her parents had disappeared and were no where to be found, no one was ever sure if they were dead or alive. She lived with her grandma and grandpa her entire life, and wouldn't have wanted it any other way. "I will always love you all."

She quickly wiped her tears away and continued reading down the wall. It had to be here! The secrets behind Leon's power had to hidden somewhere in these ruins. Leon had literally come out of nowhere at all. There were rumors of a gang called Team Galactic that was growing in the Sinnoh region. Though as soon as the rumors came, they disappeared with the last being that they were wiped out by a man named Leon. That was over ten years ago when Cynthia was only a little girl. Now just a few months ago Leon remerged, but not as a hero like everyone thought he would be.

It turned out that he did not wipe out team Galactic, but instead he overthrew the powerhouse of the group, Cryus. With him gone, he was able to take complete control over the small group and made them disappear. He played smart, allowing his numbers to grow to an epic proportion all the while keeping it secret. When Cynthia was on her journey as a Pokemon trainer, he finally revealed himself but with his new group of men now know as the Crusaders. He somehow had already known of her, and her abilities as a trainer to know that she was a threat. He forced her and her family into hiding, to wait for the perfect moment to strike.

Of this entire time, Leon had made only one mistake. Cynthia was not sure if it was crucial one yet, but it may have been and the risk was worth taking. He had place a noticeable amount of guards, to protect these ruins that she was now within. Whatever that was in here must be something central to his plan. Something that he must still have need for, or else he would have just destroyed the ruins. Cynthia and her family along with a few friends of theirs led a small raid upon the ruins in hopes to find what exactly Leon was looking for.

She continued to skim through the ancient text until she found a part of that intrigued her. _The tyrant ruled with a staff that bended the will of Pokémon to his every command. _That must be what Leon is looking for! _He forced them to betray their masters and follow his every command. This power allowed him to rule for many years as a king, unchallenged, over all of the land._

_ The group of men who had went up to pray to Arceus _were _granted there wish. Arceus appeared into the mortal world, and forced the tyrant to give up the staff. Arceus then stated to the group, that they would become the new leaders of the nation known as Sinnoh. He disappeared with the staff stating that he would hide it somewhere in the world, since it could not be destroyed and was bound to the world itself._

"That was it! It had to be! Leon must be looking for this staff!" Cynthia said to herself. She was about to continue reading the text, but an explosion from behind her caused her to stop and turnaround. Standing on all fours in front of her were two Mightyena's and a Houndoom. All of them growled viciously and bared there feral fangs at her. Behind the three dog-like Pokémon were there two trainers dressed in casual clothing; that was another thing, Leon did not care for the flashy clothing like the other groups, and that allowed him complete freedom of mobility throughout cities and towns. There could be members anywhere and it caused fear in the back of the minds of anyone who tried to stand against him.

"We finally caught up to you." One of the grunts said with a cocky grin. "Surrender and we won't hurt you, at least for now we won't."

Cynthia glared at the man slowly reaching down grabbing the first pokeball within her black cloak. "I won't ever surrender! Come on out Gabite!" She yelled throwing the small ball releasing a medium sized Pokémon. The Pokémon immediately sensed its master's hatred towards the men in front of her, and glared at them.

The three dog Pokémon cautiously moved apart from each other, giving them more room for combat with the dragon/ground-type Pokémon in front of them.

"Mightyena, use shadow ball!" The man that was talking before yelled. Both Mightyena's immediately jumped to action, forming a dark ball in front of their mouths before sending it flying towards Gabite.

"Dodge it!" Cynthia yelled. Gabite did not need to be told twice and immediately jumped back to avoid the flying dark orbs. Both of them smashed into the floor, causing dust to fill the air effectively hiding Gabite for a few seconds. "Use dig and hit Houndoom." Cynthia said quietly in hopes that the trainers did not hear her.

"Houndoom, use flamethrower!" The other man ordered his Pokémon as the dust started to clear. Houndoom was about to follow its command but suddenly the ground beneath it caved in, throwing it off balanced.

"Now Gabite, Dragon claw!" The land-shark pulled back its claw that now had a purple tint glowing around it, before bringing it down hard upon the unbalanced houndoom. Said Pokémon was sent flying back, completely unconscious. "Great job Gabite! Now use Dragon pulse on one of the Mightyena's!"

Gabite opened its mouth a released the blue beam that shot at incredible speeds towards the Mightyena closest to it. The Pokémon had no time to react as it came down crashing into its torso.

"Mightyena use crunch now!"

Cynthia clenched her teeth; she would not be able to dodge the attack. "Gabite block the attack!" The Pokémon quickly moved one of its arms in the way of the dog, letting out a small growl as it felt the fangs piercing down on its skin.

"Now use Dual Chop!" She yelled. Gabite's entire arm glowed a purple hue, as it brought down it's arm to Mightyena's back in one swift motion. The mighty strike caused the dog to lose its grip on the other arm, which was then free to smash down upon the Pokémon as well.

"You won't get away with this!" The grunt yelled reaching down to grab another pokeball from his belt.

"Gabite, dragon pulse now!" Cynthia yelled. The Pokémon complied immediately and shot the blue beam at the grunt, causing him to dive out of the way. "Good job Gabite, return!" She called holding out its pokeball. The blue cave dragon Pokémon disappeared into the small ball. She reached back placing the ball back, and grabbed the next one.

"Come on out Spiritomb! Use teleport now!"A small ghost type Pokémon appeared out of an ancient rock tablet with a wicked grin.

"Toooomb!" it yelled as it teleported itself and Cynthia out of the ruins.

The two appeared in a small shack miles away from their previous location. They had set this up in a hidden ravine, as a small get away in case of any type of emergency. If they were to get split up, this is where they were suppose to come. Cynthia immediately went to grab some notes that they had stored in the shack before making her way back to her Spiritomb.

"Alright Spiritomb, you think you can teleport us one more time?" Cynthia asked the small Pokémon, know how much of a drain teleporting another person could be.

"Tooomb Tomb" Spiritomb gave what looked like a nod, making Cynthia smile.

"Alright, try teleporting us as close to Canalave City as you can."

Once again the two disappeared into nothing, and reappeared leagues away. Cynthia looked around, and smiled to herself. She knew this location. She had crossed it many times while on her journey throughout the Region.

"Thank you Spiritomb, You deserve a nice rest" She said bringing out her pokeball and returning the ghost/dark type Pokémon and beginning her small trek towards Canalave City.

Canalave City was known as one of the only two port cities in the Sinnoh region. It's known to have an exotic air of foreign culture, from Jhoto, Kanto, and Hoenn. Cynthia had loved meeting new people from far away lands. How some of them would tell her about their own adventures with Pokemon that Cynthia has yet to see before. She could remember the battle she had with Byron, the gym leader. He was a tough one to beat, but she had managed quite well.

As she entered the City from the south side, she quickly walked across a bridge into the port dock building. There were many people there, either waiting in line in front of the counter or just arriving from one of the other regions. Noticing how long the line was Cynthia let out a sigh in relief. Her family had already bought themselves tickets to the Kanto region knowing that Leon would not stop until they found her after today. She quickly made her way past the line and onto the boarding dock.

"Hello Miss, may I see your ticket?" The woman asked with what could easily be seen as an false smile. She probably has been here all day and was ready to go home.

Cynthia smiled and held up her ticket. "Very good, please go right on in. This boat doesn't leave for another hour, but your more than welcome to find your room to stay in. The trip to Kanto will take a day and a half."

"Thank you very much mam." Cynthia replied politely and entered the boat. She quickly found a room and put her things down. Lying down on her bed she let out a loud sigh of relief. After she gets out of Sinnoh, It would get a lot easier.

She took a deep breath, as the adrenaline that had built up inside her started to disperse, it was replaced by fatigue. That's when it hit her, a wave of sadness flew throughout her and tears started to leak down her face. Her grandparents were no longer with her, she was alone! With no friends other than her Pokémon, going to a whole new region without anything to come back to frightened her. She had no one else to turn to! Alone in a fight against a tyrant.

With those thoughts in mind, she cried herself to sleep.

The journey to Viridian city turned out a lot better than the first time around in Ash's opinion. On his way he came across the same spearow that he had last time. Instead of hitting the Pokémon with a rock though, this time around Pikachu followed his command and hit the small bird Pokémon with a lightning bolt. The poor pokemon didn't even stand a chance against it. The pokemon immediately fainted, allowing Ash to capture the small bird Pokémon quite easily. He needed to rebuild a team of Pokémon. As strong as Pikachu was, he would not be able to take on everything by himself.

He remembered that this spearow was the same one that would eventually evolve into the Fearow and lead all of the spearows in this area, becoming quite strong for a pokemon that trained itself. Imagine the potential it had if trained by an actual trainer.

The second and last interesting thing that happened on the way to Viridian was him coming across Misty again. It hurt his heart that she did not recognize him, but he pushed through and was able to make good friends with her again. Ash couldn't hold in his amusement when Misty came with him on her bike. He never did pay her back for the bike, but at least this time around he would not have to.

That brings them to where they are right now, which is the small Pokémon center in Viridian. Ash was healing up his small spearow from a hard day of training. He wasn't sure if he was going to keep the spearow on his main team, but for now he wanted it to get stronger. The Pokémon had guts, he had to give it that, it had tried and failed over and over again to defeat Pikachu. Though small, Ash could already see some improvements and would help his Pokémon overcome its flaws. He knew what to work on for this spearow to reach its maximum potential.

Ash was sitting in the Pokémon center next to Misty when Spearow finally came back out looking a bit happier now that it was healed and rested again. That's when the Pokémon center went into a small crisis. Ash let out a small sigh, remembering his first encounter with Team Rocket. He really did not have time to put up with them right now.

The roof window shattered into millions shards of glass, and the trio made up of Jessica, James, and Meowth dropped from the roof.

"Who are you?" Nurse Joy shrieked in fear.

"They are Team Rocket, Nurse Joy, they steal Pokémon from other trainers." Ash said.

"Oh, so a reputation precedes us, I see." James said cockily. He glanced over to Jessica who was also smirking "Looks like the kid knows who we are. Should we tell the rest of them?"

"But of course Jesse." She started "To protect the world from deva-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah" Ash interrupted glaring at the trio. "I really don't have time for this right now. Pikachu hit them with Thunder!" Pikachu jumped off his masters shoulder and started to let the bolts of electricity flow through him.

"Pikachu!" the small rodent cried as the lighting flew towards team rocket smashing into them causing them to fly out the window to the sky.

"Wow, what a bunch of weaklings if you ask me." Misty said "Getting knocked out by you in one hit."

"Or maybe I'm just really strong?"

"Nah, that's impossible you told me you just started your journey. They were just weak that's all." Misty clarified.

Ash sighed and shook his head. "Well, good job anyway Pikachu. You need a rest? Or are you ready to go to Viridian Forest?" Pikachu shook his head and jumped onto Ash's shoulder.

"Ash we just got to Viridian City, why do you want to leave so soon?" Misty questioned.

"Well, there's somebody I'm hoping to meet someone in Pewter City. I need to get there as soon as I can." Ash looked over at the time. It was about to be 9:00 P.M. So he would be traveling the forest at night, witch didn't bother him, the forest was relatively peaceful. He looked back at Misty who seemed to also realize this. "You can stay here if you want, but I really need to go." Ash finished already walking out of the Pokémon center.

"But Ash the forest is dangerous at night! You could get hurt out there alone!"

Ash gave her a little smile, "Don't worry so much Misty, I will be fine. I really must get there as soon as I can though."

"Alright Ash," She let out a small sigh "it was nice meeting you, maybe we will see each other again?" She said giving Ash a knowing smirk. Ash had told her that he wanted to be a Pokémon Master, so he was bound to be doing gym challenges. _I'm sure he will be completely surprise when he gets to my gym._

"Yeah, maybe we will." Ash said still continuing out of the center. "Later Misty."

"Bye, Ash" Misty replied turning back to the center desk to rent out a room for the night.

Ash was in deep thought when he entered the forest. He didn't really need to pay attention to where he was going. As long as he stayed on the path he would be at the end of the forest in no time. Not to mention that the Pokémon around here were particularly weak. The spearow he had caught a yesterday could already handle most of them, due to it's type advantage over most pokemon in the forest.

He desperately held onto the hope that Brock had made it through the portal. _Of course he did, he said that he was right behind me._ Although Ash was no longer the dense little kid he had used to be, he still was not the brightest tool in the shed. That would be another reason he needed Brock here. He was the smartest one out of the group, and he would be able to help set out a plan to stop Leon.

Leon…He was another mystery to be solved. What could he possibly be planning? Why did he want to go back in the past? '_I'm defiantly going to need to Brocks help, right Pikachu?' _Ash said to Pikachu telepathically through the aura.

He felt Pikachu's softly tap the side of his head as he nodded from his shoulder. Ash continued his long trek through the forest until it became too dark to see. He quickly made a small camp off the side of the road behind a bunch of brush. He knew he would be safe here in the Viridian forest, though it was filled with Pokémon most were scared of human or just didn't mind them at all. "Hey Pikachu, wake me up in the morning would you?"

"Pi, Pika" Pikachu said lazily before cuddling into Ash's stomach.

Ash closed his eyes in hopes of falling asleep quickly, but soon found that to be impossible. His mind was too much of a jumbled mess to fall asleep. It kept coming back to Leon. _I can't let him get away this time around. He always was able to slip through my grasp every time I had him cornered. This will be the last time!_

He pulled his small make shift pillow into his face, trying to clear his thoughts again. Most of his thoughts disappeared this time, all except one. It was the one thought he did not mind thinking about though, in a way it did make his heart ache. It was the one thought that had been nagging at the back of his mind the entire day. It was one that was not important to him right now; yet at the same time it was central to his being. What was that one thought?

_Cynthia._

**Alright people, that would conclude my very first chapter! I hope you enjoyed it, and yes I know I kind of rushed it at the end. Please, please review, as I'm sure they will make happy.**

*****Imporant*** I have a poll on my page allowing you all to decide if Ash should get a legendary Pokémon or not. If he does get a legendary Pokémon it will be more of the less powerful legends. Meaning that Pokémon as in Groundon, Kyogre, Rayquaza, Deoxys, Jirachi, and some others WILL NOT be the Pokémon he will get.**


	2. Adventure Restart

**Hey guys, I'm back again, hopefully I was not gone for to long! I actually took the time to edit this one, so if the grammar is still horrible, let me know. I will try to find a Beta Reader.**

**Make sure to read the notes at the bottom, as they are important.**

**5421 words without author notes :)**

**&disclaimer& Pokemon = Not mine :(**

**Please read and enjoy!**

* * *

The early morning was filled with sounds of Pokémon awaking from there nightly slumber. From the pidgey's that left the safety of their nests to find a morning snack, to the rustling branches caused by the waking rattata. The noise awoke Ash from his sleep, causing a low groan to emerge for his rude awakening. His eye's slowly opened, just to be immediately greeted by the morning sun. Quickly shutting them again, he sighed warily and rubbed the sleepiness away. Looking around his small camp he found Pikachu still fast asleep on the floor next to him. Ash smiled as he moved closer to his small rodent companion.

He slowly moved his finger closely to the small pokemons black little nose and gently rubbed it, causing the pokémon to reach up and itch it. Ash bit back his laughter as he repeated the gesture. Pikachu rubbed it nosed harder, starting to get frustrated with the small itch that kept coming back, only wanting to go back to sleep. Ash did the gesture once again, but this time pikachu's eyes opened and immediately glared at him.

"Pi! Pi pi pika chu! Pikachu!" The small rodent started yelling at his friend who couldn't hold back his laughter any more. Pikachu glared at him, annoyed by Ash's amusement. "Pikachu!" the small Pokémon yelled as it let loose a small electricity attack that made Ash stop laughing immediately.

"Hey! That was not uncalled for!" Ash yelled at the small Pokémon, who seemed to be laughing now. "Any way, weren't you supposed to wake me up in the morning?"

Pikachu gave Ash a small shrug and jumped on to his shoulders. "Pi Pikaa." The small Pokémon said, rubbing his cheek affectionately against his best friends cheek, in an attempt to get back on his good side.

"Alright, let's go ahead and start moving on." Ash said. He quickly picked up his small camp and placed it back into his backpack. As they started walking forward down the trail again, Ash's stomach started to rumble. "Eh heh, I guess I'm kind of hungry? Oh how I wish Brock was here."

Brock would be able to whip up a Breakfast meal for them in no time at all. He always seemed to have a never ending supply of food. To Ash, that was the perfect traveling partner. Not to mention that he was always prepared to have food to feed everyone, no matter how large the group was.

"Well at least I got us some of these small snack bars before we left, right buddy." Ash said as he pulled out some small chocolate bar's out of his backpack. He opened one and handed it to Pikachu who immediately started nibbling on the top of the small bar. Ash pulled out his own candy bar and started eating it as well, savoring the delicious chocolate taste falling down his throat.

"Well we should be out of here in an hour or two, we will head straight towards the Gym. Hopefully Brock would be there when we get their." Ash thought out loud.

The rest of the small the trip was uneventful. The sun had made it's way to the peak of the sky when the two finally made it to the small town known as Pewter City. The town was small and surrounded by great big mountains and rocks, that served as natural barrier to the outside world. Even in ten years the town didn't seemed to change from how it looked now. Maybe there were a few more buildings, but other than that, it seemed to be completely untouched by time.

From where Ash was standing now, he could see the biggest building in the center of the town, the gym. That is where Brock should be and where they will be heading first. Seeing the Gym filled Ash with a new vigorous feeling of anxiousness. He quickly made his way to the gym, smiling politely to all the people who were going on with their daily lives.

As Ash entered the gym, he could see the giant rock field. The field looked like it had seen better days. The floor had small craters throughout it, and a lot of the rocks had cracks down them threatening to crumble. It seemed as if their had been a battle recently.

He ran up towards the sidelines of the field to get a better look to see if the battle was still going on. On both sides of the field were two different pokemon glaring at each other. He looked at the two Pokémon that were in battle. One being a giant snake-like Pokémon, completely composed of multiple rocks sticking together. The biggest rock in front had a fin-like structure on the top of its head. As you followed it down the rock body seemed to get smaller and smaller until the very end. Ash quickly recognized the pokemon as Onyx.

The other Pokémon had a clear advantage over the rock-type Pokémon. It was a small blue turtle that stood on its two hind legs and stared up defiantly at the giant Pokémon before him. To an untrained person, the battle may have looked to be in the giant Pokémon's favor. One being over eight meters tall and weighing over 200kg, against a small turtle that only stood half a meter and weighed nine kilograms, but Pokémon battles can be deceiving like that. Both of the pokemon were panting heavily, so the battle must have been going on for a while, before Ash got there.

"Squirtle, use Water Gun!" called a familiar voice from the challenger side of the field. The small turtle nodded, and let loose a blast of water from its mouth. The stream of water hit the rock Pokémon hard causing it to grimace in pain.

Ash looked towards the challenger and found it to be none other than Gary himself. He looked as cocky as ever, knowing full well that he had complete control over the battle.

"Onyx!" yelled another man's voice. "Are you okay?"

Ash looked towards the man. He knew who it was, he would be able to recognize that voice anywhere. There he was, standing on the Gym leader's side of the field, Brock. He stood tall in a orange shirt, and over that was a green vest. His tan face was clenched in worry for his Pokémon.

"Onyx is unable to battle!" a man from the opposite side of the field from where Ash sood yelled. "The winner of this battle is Gary Oak, from Pallet Town!"

"Return Squirtle!" Gary yelled, holding his Pokéball towards the small turtle. The familiar light enveloped the Pokémon, and returned into the ball. "You did good Squirtle."

Gary looked up to Brock who was now returning his Pokémon. "That was a fun battle Gary," he said making his way across the rock field. "It is my honor to present to you this Boulder Badge, as proof that you defeated the Gym leader here."

Gary accepted the badge and smiled. "Alright, one down, seven more to go!" He placed the badge into his Badge container. "Thank you for the battle." He said to Brock, before turning to make his way out of the building. Instead, his eyes fell upon Ash. "Oh, Ashy-boy I see you finally made it here to watch me win my battle."

"Well not all of have the convenience of a vehicle Gary" Ash replied. He looked towards Brock, for any sign that he remembered who he was.

Gary simply snorted "Well, I am going to the Pokémon center. The next time we see each other we are going to battle Ash." He said as he made his way out of the Gym. Ash nodded subconsciously not really paying attention to Gary.

"Hello there," Brock said "I am this Gym's leader, are you perhaps another challenger?"

That broke Ash into pieces. He had been relying on Brock remembering, he had refused to even think that he had not made it through! He said that he was right behind him! Did he lie to him? Ash felt like he been punched in the gut. What would he do now? He needed somebody's help to get through this.

"Uhh hello?" Brock said. "Are you okay there?"

"Oh, yeah," Ash smiled weakly, "Yes I am fine, I'm just another challenger."

"Oh good, well as of right now my Onyx is out of condition to do battle, so how about we do a one on one?"

"That would be great, thank you" he said making his way slowly to the competitor's side of the field. His thoughts were everywhere but on this battle before him.

Brock had just turned back around and looked at his new challenger. "Before we begin, can I get your name?"

"My name is Ash Ketchum, from Pallet Town."

Brock nodded and looked at the referee. "This battle is between the Gym leader, Brock, and his challenger Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town. This will be a one on one battle. The Gym leader must show his Pokémon first, begin!"

"Come on out Geodude!" Brock yelled throwing his pokeball into the air. Out from it came a small rock Pokémon. It was literally a rock with two muscular arms, floating in the air.

"Alright buddy, you are up." Ash said looking to his yellow companion. "_But make sure to take it easy alright_." He added mentally through his Aura. His Pikachu had retained its strength from the future, meaning that he was on the champion's skill level. He would have to take it easy to not hurt the Pokémon to bad.

"Pi, Pi ka" The mouse said before jumping on to the battle field.

"Alright Ash, as challenger the first move is all yours!"

"Big mistake allowing me the first move, Pikachu, Quick attack in to an Iron tail!" Pikachu followed immediately as if knowing Ash was going to give that command. The small electric rodent disappeared from the field with unseen speed, in which only the most trained and disciplined Pokémon and trainers could see. It reappeared behind the unsuspecting geodude, and landed a hard hit with its glowing tail to the back of the Pokémon.

Geodude flew straight down into the ground, causing a huge burst of smoke to appear. Pikachu immediately retreated back to its side of the field, and stood ready to continue if needed. As the smoke dispersed, in its stead was a large crater with a knocked out geodude in the center.

"_I said to go easy Pikachu!" _Ash scolded mentally. Pikachu gave a helpless shrug and jumped back onto his shoulder.

Brock's face was one of complete shock, Ash would be laughing at the comical look on his friends face had it not been that said friend didn't remember him.

Never in his entire career has he been so utterly defeated. Normally people came to this gym near the beginning of their career so they were strong enough to barely win. Even seasoned trainers had to get worked up before they took him down, but to lose so badly. It only showed the skill difference between him, and the best.

"Return Geodude! You did great pal, take a long rest," Brock said to his small Pokémon friend. "Ash, your Pikachu is incredible! I have never seen a Pokémon move so fast before!"

"Ah hah, thank you very much, Brock." Ash said rubbing the back of his head. "We trained pretty hard and got far because it."

"I bet you did, I have never seen a Pikachu's coat look so smooth and soft. You must take really good care of your Pokemon!"

"Ah, thank you Brock."

"Well anyway, it is my honor to present to you the Boulder Badge!" He said bringing out the same badge that he had given to Gary a few minutes earlier.

"Thank you Brock." Ash said taking the badge quietly. He stuffed it into his pocket and started to make his way out. Honestly, he had no idea where he was going next. With Brock not remembering a thing from the future, he would have to do this on his own.

He made his way down the street. The sun was already falling down behind the peaks of the distant mountains. _I guess we will go to the Pokémon center for the night, tomorrow we will find out what we are going to do._

He made his way down to the Pokémon center, near the outskirts of the town. As he walked inside he saw Gary sitting on a chair on side near the window, talking to his 'fan club'. The group of people seemed to be hanging on his every word. Ash shook his head and walked up to the front desk.

"Hello Nurse Joy, can I get a room here for the night?" He asked tiredly. He hadn't realized until now, the complete magnitude of the burden that had been placed his shoulders. Not only that, but he would have to carry it all out on his own, with no help from the others.

"Yes you may, do any of your Pokémon need any rest as well?" She asked politely. She could tell the boy in front of had a lot of things running through his head.

"Oh yes, can you please check up on my spearow. We did a lot of training yesterday, and I haven't had the chance to check him in." He said unclipping the ball from his belt and handing it to the nurse.

"No problem at all, Spearow will be fine in the morning. Now if you want to go to your room, it's the fifth door on right down the hall."

"Thank you very much Nurse Joy." Ash said, starting to make his way down the hall. He was hoping to avoid any run ins with Gary again. He wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone right now.

"Ohaeder Ashy-boy. (See what I did there?)" Said Gary's , his obnoxious voice filling the room. "Remember how I said we would battle next time we ran into each other? Well here we both are."

Ash tiredly turned back around to face Gary. "I'm sorry Gary, but I can't battle right now, besides my Pokemon are in the pokemon center. We both are staying the night here, I'm assuming, so we can face off in the morning."

"Oh, are you scared Ash? I never thought you would back down from a battle?" He said tauntingly.

Ash smiled to himself. Normally back when he was beginning his Journey, he would have been easily goaded into a battle. But now, that has changed. He was no longer the ignorant little trainer who only dreamed of becoming the best, but hardly did anything to better himself and his Pokémon. He was now a real trainer at heart, and being that, he knew when it was appropriate to battle. For him, now was not a good time.

"Like I said earlier, we will battle in the morning." Ash said again. "Good night, Gary."

He made his way down the hall, before Gary could reply, feeling his surprised look on his back. He found his room and went inside. It was a small room, but that didn't matter. There was only one bed, a small counter, and a small tv across the room. He walked to the bed and collapsed onto it.

"_What are we going to do Pikachu?"_

"Pika pi pi" Pikachu said from its position on the bed. "kaaaa"

"_I guess you're right, we can figure it out in the morning. Good night buddy."_ With that, he surrendered into the darkness and fell asleep.

* * *

Cynthia did not know what to do. She had barely managed to escape Leon's grasp and got to the Kanto Region for what? A temporary safe get away? For some reason, the man would not leave her in peace! She did not start anything with the man, yet he continued to hunt her down as if she were some kind of legendary pokemon.

She couldn't stop the dread filling her mind. She had been lucky so far. She couldn't help but feel that her luck would soon come to an end. Everything that she worked for, would be for nothing if they got their hands on her now.

No. She would not let them do that, but how? How would she be able to survive in a place she knows next to nothing about? Sure she has traveled through the Sinnoh and Hoenn Regions long enough to know how to survive, but that was without a mad man hunting her every move. She needed to find someone to help her.

Maybe she could ask Officer Jenny? Though that would do little good. They do not have the same jurisdiction in Sinnoh, as they do here. Not to mention the one's in Sinnoh did little good in stopping Leon. No, they would not be able to do anything to help.

She looked around at the small town known as Vermilion. The ship had just arrived at the small town, not more than a hour ago. The first place she would go is a Pokémon center. At least there, she might be able to get some more information about the towns here.

She made her way through the small town, ignoring the glances that she was getting from the surrounding people. She knew she stuck out like a sore thumb. It wasn't every day you see a women with long blonde flowing hair, that cascaded down like a waterfall to her legs and covered one of her piercing gray eyes. wearing a black coat, shirt and pants.

She finally ended up at the Pokemon center, it wasn't to hard to fine, the big red roof was easy to spot. She made her way inside, immediately welcoming the cool breeze that rushed out as she opened the door.

She walked up to the counter. "Hello Nurse Joy."

"Oh, hi there, are your Pokemon in need of any treatment?" the nurse asked kindly.

"Actually no, I just got here from the Sinnoh Region, and I'm not familiar with the area." Cynthia said nervously, her cheeks tinting pink in embarrassment. She hated asking for help. She had always been an independent women, who never asked for help, but then again, these are not normal circumstances.

The Nurse giggled "No worries, I actually hear that a lot since this is one of Kanto's only ports, there are always visitors from other regions. Now then, are you a Pokemon trainer perhaps?"

"Yes I am actually."

"Well, I would suggest doing the gym battles then. Kanto is the region where the next competition will be held, and you still have more than a month to get ready for it."

"Actually, I'm not to sure if I am going to compete in this competition. Perhaps there is something else I can do here?" Cynthia replied. She didn't have the time to sit here and do nothing, while a tyrant ran loose in the Sinnoh. She needed to find help as soon as possible.

"Well there are some vacation spots I could point you to if you want?" Nurse Joy suggested.

Who would be willing to help her though? She would need someone stronger than herself. Maybe one of the elites or even the champion? They have to know whats going in Sinnoh, so they should help!

"uhh, Hello?" Nurse Joy asked to the blonde girl in front of her.

"Oh, sorry Nurse Joy! I was thinking of something." Cynthia said embarrassed. "What was it you were saying?"

"That's okay, well, I was saying I could point you in the direction of some vacation spots?"

"Hmm, as good as that sounds I think I'm going to have to pass." Cynthia said. She could only dream of going on vacation right now. It was almost tempting enough for her to actually go.

"Oh, well then I'm not entirely sure what to help you with." Nurse Joy said helplessly.

"Actually, would you happen to know the fastest way for me to get into contact with one of the Elites or the Champion of this region?" Cynthia asked.

"The champion?" Nurse joy asked confused. "Well honestly I have no idea how to get into contact with them. Well, other than at the Pokemon league competition."

Cynthia sighed in defeat. She would still have to wait for the competition for the help that she needed.

"There has to be another way!" Cynthia said. "Sinnoh is falling to a tyrant, and there is nobody there that can stop him! I can not wait a month!"

Nurse Joy looked completely stunned. "Is this about the uprising gang in Sinnoh?" Cynthia nodded her head. "We heard from Sinnoh League that they had everything under control?"

Cynthia stared at the young Nurse in front of her. "They have already undermined the entire Sinnoh league, thats where they started! The champion can't even stop the gang any more! There leader is to powerful! That's why I am here in Kanto, to find help."

Nurse Joy was in shock. They had no idea that the Sinnoh region was doing so badly and there wasn't anything she could really do.

"I'm sorry that there isn't much I can do, I'm only a Nurse at the Pokemon center. I think the fastest way to get into contact with the league of this region, would be to collect the eight badges and wait for the competition. Even if you have to wait a month, that would be faster than trying waiting in the long line of trainers who are trying to earn a battle with them."

"I guess I really have no choice in the matter." Cynthia let out a defeated sigh. "So where is the closest gym?"

Nurse Joy let out a small smile. "There is a Gym in the South part of the town, near where your boat docked when you first got here. The next closest, I would say is in Saffron City. "

"Thank you Nurse Joy, I guess I will go challenge the Gym leader right now." She gave a small wave and turned to walk out.

"No problem, come back if your Pokemon need any healing."

Cynthia walked outside, instantly being greeted by the warm sunlight. She looked around the small town. There were a few kids running around outside playing tag. There giggles and laughter managed to bring a small smile to Cynthia's lips. What she would give to be that small again, without a care in the world. She let out a small sigh, and made her way down to the gym.

She found it with no problem at all and made her way inside. The rumbling sounds of generators filled her ears. _I guess this is a Lighting gym. _The deeper she went inside the louder the rumbling became until the long hall way opened to what looked like a giant engine room. The middle of the room was completely empty, except what looked like an outlining of a pokemon battle field in chock. The outer rim of the room were lined with a bunch of mechanical engines.

In the back of the room were a small group of people, talking amongst them selves. Three of them were men, while the other two were females. There was one more guy that sat behind them with his muscular arms crossed his chest. He had blonde spiky hair. Even though the room was already dark, he still wore a pair of sunglasses. He also had a green muscle shirt, and army camouflage pants on.

_Probably just the gym leader and his trainers._ Cynthia thought to her self.

As she approached the group, the man sitting on the chair looked up towards her and grinned.

"Oh, what's a pretty young lady like yourself doing here in my Gym?" His deep voice asked cockily.

Cynthia immediately frowned. She instantly did not like the man sitting in front of her. She hated it when people judge her strength only based off her looks, or because she a girl.

"I am challenging this Gym." She glared at the man with her one visible eye, who was now laughing as if she had said some sort of joke.

"Oh is that so? Well you can call me Lt. Surge. Now tell me young lady-"

"My name is Cynthia Shirona!" Cynthia interrupted him.

"Oh my, feisty one aren't you!" Sarge let out another laugh. "I like you. Now, tell me how many badges do you have from Kanto?"

"This will be the first."

This time, everyone in the group started laughing. Cynthia was getting frustrated, what was so damn funny?

"You expect to beat the Lieutenant, when you haven't got any badges?" One of the men in the group exclaimed.

"Yeah, get on out of here, don't waste our time!" This time a girl in the front said.

Sarge decided to intervene here. "Whoa, now let's give this cute little girl a chance, alright." He said looking down to his little groupies with a mischievous glint in his eye's. "If you can defeat one of them, I will humor you with a battle."

Cynthia clenched her teeth in anger, trying to remain calm, in which was becoming increasingly more difficult to do. "Fine! I will do this little test of yours."

With that she turned around, whipping her air hair across the air, and walked to the side of the arena. When she made it to the end, she turned back and waited.

"Alright then, Ryan." Sarge said looking down to one of his men. "Wrap this up quickly would ya?"

Said man grinned and nodded, before making his way down to his side of the field. One of the females of the group walked up to side of arena and yelled "This will be a one on one battle between Cynthia Shirona, and Ryan Revears!"

"Voltorb! Come on out!" Ryan yelled throwing his pokeball into the air. The red beam shot out and formed into a ball. The pokemon looked almost identical to a pokeball. It was sphere, with the top half red and bottom white. The only difference were the two glaring eyes that the ball had.

Cynthia raised an eyebrow, curious about the small pokemon before her. She knew that Kanto had a wide variety of different pokemon, but she had never had the liberty of facing a lot of them in real life. Though she had seen a lot of the pokemon through television.

"What you nervous?" Ryan goaded.

"No just merely thinking." Cynthia replied throwing her pokeball into the air. "C'mon out Gastrodon!"

Out from came a pink and brown slug Pokemon. It's outer shell was brown with bumps, that protected it's pink underbelly. It looked around, carefully observing it's surrounding area, until it's three eyes came upon voltorb.

"Whoa, you are not from around here are you!" Lt. Surge said loudly from the sideline.

"No I am not, can we get this battle started now?"

"Yes," The woman on the sideline said. "This is a battle between gastodon and voltorb! Start!"

"Voltorb, use Thundershock now!" Ryan yelled. The small ball pokemon followed it's trainers command and let loose it's lightning attack.

Cynthia smirked. "Gastrodon, take it." The slug pokemon nodded and sat there as the electric attack flew towards it. At contact a burst of dust shot up covering a small part of the field.

"Yes! Good job voltorb." Ryan cheered, then looked smugly at Cynthia. "Maybe you should try dodging next time."

Cynthia merely shrugged, and kept smirking. As the dust cleared, it revealed the Water/Ground type pokemon still in its same position not even phased by the electric attack.

"What! How is that possible!" Ryan yelled.

"Gastrodon may be a water type, but it is also a Ground type. Meaning that electric attacks will have absolutely no effect on him. Now, use Mud Bomb!"

Gastrodon pulled it's head back before shooting multiple ball's of muddy water out of it's mouth at high speeds towards Voltorb.

"Voltorb Dodge it! Then use rollout!" The ball pokemon immediately started to roll from left to right, dodging most of gastrodons attack. It started to gain momentum, and rolled towards gastrodon.

"Gastrodon, Earthquake Now!" gastrodon immediately hit the ground causing the floor to crack. The earth seam to shake, as cracks appeared in the floor towards voltorb. The Pokemon stood no chance as it got hit by the super effective attack, pushing it back to the opposite side of the field.

"Voltorb! Can you keep going?" The small ball pokemon glared at gastrodon, but it looked worn out. Ryan clenched his teeth together. V_oltorb is getting tired, and gastrodon doesn't even look winded! This is not good. Their is only one thing I can do._

"Voltorb, Get in close!" Ryan yelled out. The pokemon immediately took of rolling torwards gastrodon, who lowered it's head in preparation of the next attack.

"Be ready." Cynthia said quietly trying to figure out what her opponents strategy. "Hit it with muddy water, stop it in its tracks!" The pokemon released a stream of brown, mucky water from its mouth towards the rolling pokemon.

"Dodge them and keep going!" Ryan yelled. This was his last chance. The pokemon strafed from side to side barely avoiding the crushing force of the dirty water. As the Pokemon neared gastrodon Ryan took his final opportunity. "Voltorb, Explosion!"

Cynthia's eyes widen in complete shock. This was not what she had expected at all. Explosion was a powerful move, but the cost of its destruction force was the pokemon itself. This act was one of complete desperation and one that only a coward would use.

Before Cyntiha could even call out some sort of defense to the move, it was to late. The small electric pokemon glowed white, can called out its name in anger. Mere seconds later the pokemon exploded, releasing a powerful explosion its body. The blast completely covered gastrodon in seconds, completely concealing it behind the red flames.

"Gastodon!" Cynthia yelled in terror as she helplessly watched the event that played out before her. The explosion disappeared, in its place formed a large dust cloud. Seconds felt like hours as she waited for the smoke to disappear. Very slowly the dust particles settled back on the ground, revealing the two shapes in the middle of it.

Gastrodon stood, panting heavily, a few feet back from where it had began. The force of the explosion must have pushed the pokemon back. It looked like it was on the verge of fainting, but pushing through to not lose the battle. Voltorb was a few feet away, completely unconscious from its own attack.

"Voltorb is unable to battle! Gastrodon and Cynthia win!"

Cynthia ran up to the pokemon and hugged it. "Thank you so much Gastrodon! You did great, now take a long rest." She returned the pokemon to its pokeball and placed it back on her belt. She glared at Ryan for a few seconds, before turning her glare up to the Lieutenant, who was looking upon the battle field with surprise. "Lets get this over with."

His surprise quickly faded into a smirk. "Sure, I think I may have misjudged you a bit. You may provide a challenge after all." He walked to the end of field and grabbed a Pokeball off his belt. "Lets get this started, shall we?"

* * *

Leon was not in a good mood. In fact he was the exact opposite, furious. He mentally cursed his grunts incompetence to capture Cynthia before she got away. The trainer had been causing him much grief, just like she had done when she was champion.

He clenched his fist in anger. He had the whole Sinnoh region cowering underneath him, and it would not end there. No, he would not allow for any more mess ups. The power he has been searching for was almost in his hands, and he was not about to let it slip through his fingers.

He currently sat behind the desk that once had belong to Cyrus, the once, great and powerful leader of Team Galactic. The man had been his boss for a time, but then again, that was a whole different time line. He was a resourceful man, who was able to get a whole group of people to join his cause in creating his own world. His arrogance was his downfall. He believed that he was far more powerful than any one of his grunts under his command, and because of that he thought he would be unchallenged. Leon proved him otherwise. The man had practically started Leon's army for him.

It did not matter any more, that Cynthia managed to escape. He would send some of his top grunts after her. _She thinks that she can escape me by going to Kanto. _He smiled wickedly to himself. _That is where I was going to pay my next visit anyway, to a little Ash Ketchum. Now they are both in the same place, that will make it much easier._

"Sir, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are here as you requested." A young women interrupted the silence from the door.

"Very well, send them in will you?"

She nodded and closed the door. A few seconds later the door opened again allowing three new individuals enter the room. Leon eyed each one carefully, noting the small frown each held upon there faces. He knew that they did not approve of his take over on Cyrus, yet they feared him to much to do anything. Funny thing, fear.

"You three have been called here to take care of two of my enemies for me." Leon started off, getting straight to the point. "You will go to the Kanto Region, and take care of both Cynthia, who you three should already know, and a young boy named Ash Ketchum."

Jupiter looked at Leon strangely. "Sir, if I may ask, what has this Ash Ketchum done to warrant your attention?"

Leon turned his steel gaze to Jupiter. "You may not ask."

Jupiter quickly looked down to the floor and nodded her head.

"Now then, if I am correct, Ash should just becoming a Pokemon trainer in the Kanto region." Leon said as he turned around from them and looked at the wall. "Now, go and take care of the two, however you see fit."

The three grinned wickedly, "Yes sir!" they said in unison. The three immediately turned and made there way out of the room, leaving Leon by himself in his room.

"Now, all we do is wait."

* * *

**Alright People, Thank you very much for reading hopefully, you enjoyed! Now I will be VERY appreciative if you leave a review. let me know what you think. They are what keep me going! :)**

**I was going say something here, but I forget.**

**Now, the poll is closed. Results? Legendary wins 12 to 7. At first it was pretty close.**

**With that said there is now another poll open, this one with all the choices of the Legendary that I pick. As I said before, I am not going to choose an overpowered legend. After you see the choices, if you think you know one that I can add to the poll, PM me, I will probably get back to you the same day. Or if there is one that you think is Overpowered, let me know.**

**Now, I hope I did not make Ash or Cynthia seem to Overpowered, but if you think so let me know. Understand that the battles were against an early gym leader, and a trainer for a gym. Battles will become better, I promise you all that much.**

**Hmm anything else? Oh yes, tell me what you think about Leon POV parts. Should I keep doing them? Or just stick with Cyntha/Ash POV's. I honestly don't like OC's so, I can do it either way.**

**Now I think I am done. Again thanks a lot for reading and I hope you enjoyed!**

**And please...REVIEW! :)**

**Ohaeder.**


	3. Cynthia

**Ohaeder people.**

**Let me start by saying how terribly sorry I am. I have no excuses other than my laziness.**

**Now, I have ANOTHER poll on my page, because the other one tied. So defiantly go vote!**

**HUGE thanks to Nauran for being the Beta for this Chapter!**

**Enough chit chat let's start!**

**Hope you enjoy and like always REVIEW! :)**

**Word Count: 6,466 without Authors notes.**

Ash sighed. He was almost out the door of the Pokémon center, when the voice came from behind him. Now here he was, stuck out in front of the pokémon center staring down Gary who stood smugly across the field. Gary's group of fans stood behind him, already cheering even though the battle had yet to begin. A few of the towns people that were passing by, stopped to watch as the small battle piqued their interest.

"Alright Ashy-boy, let's see who's the better between the two of us!" Gary said, his hand going down to his side to pull out his second pokéball. "Seeing as you only have two pokémon, this will be a two on two."

"Alright Gary," Ash said. In all honesty, his thoughts weren't even on the battle at hand. He was still trying to figure out what he should do next. He subconsciously reached down to his pokéball that held spearow inside, this might be a little interesting at least.

"Alright then, c'mon out Rattata!" Gary called, throwing his pokéball high into sky, a lot higher than what was needed Ash noticed. Out from the ball came the small purple rat Pokémon. It sneered at Ash waiting for him to send out his own pokémon.

"C'mon on out, Spearow!" Ash yelled, letting loose his own small bird pokémon. The Spearow immediately glared at the small rat pokémon. It stretched its wings out to the sides, preparing for the upcoming battle.

"You can have the first move, Ashy-boy." Gary called out confidently.

"Alright then, Spearow! Start with a quick attack!" The bird pokémon immediately took off in a low flight towards the rattata.

"Dodge it!" Gary's voice rang out. The rat, immediately jumped into the air above the spearow, barely managing to dodge it. Ash grinned, the pokémon's inexperience was easily noticeable. He highly doubted that this rattata would have any ranged attacks in its arsenal, leaving itself wide open in the air.

"Hit him with Peck!" Ash yelled. The Spearow immediately did a 180-loop, coming towards the Rattata from the back. Its sharp beak immediately smashed into the pokémon's skin, sending it flying off to the side.

"No Rattata!" Gary yelled, he looked as if he wanted to run up to his pokémon and make sure that it was okay. "C'mon buddy, get back up!" The small pokémon struggled as it got back on its paws. It was breathing pretty hard, but otherwise seemed ready to get back into the battle.

Ash watched the display. His childhood friend was a good guy, no matter how hard he tried the cool-guy facade, in the end he cared about his pokémon. Ash watched the Ratatta, he could tell that one more hit and it would be out.

"Rattata, hit it with your own quick attack!" Gary called. The pokémon immediately broke into a dead sprint towards the spearow, who was still flying a little off the ground.

Ash waited, as soon as the Rattata jumped off the ground to tackle spearow, he yelled "Gust!" His spearow immediately obliged, flapping its wings hard sending a small current at the small pokémon. It stood no chance as it was pushed back into the ground.

"Rattata!" Gary called again, before sighing and bringing out his pokéball, the pokémon was done for now. "Return, you did good!" The familiar red glow shot out of the pokéball returning the pokémon back to the safety of its confines.

"Is that all you have Gary?" Ash called out, tauntingly. It was a rare opportunity for Ash to get the better of his rival and he was going to milk it for all it was worth.

"You're a lot better than I expected Ash, let's see if you can beat this one! C'mon out Squirtle!" He threw out his pokéball revealing the small blue turtle starter pokémon. Squirtle looked at spearow, with excitement, eager to fight in the next battle.

"I will let you have the first move this time!" Ash called out.

"Squirtle, Water Gun!" He yelled, wasting no time at all. The small water type opened it mouth, sending out a large torrent of water towards Spearow.

"Quick Dodge it!" Ash yelled. The flying type pokémon attempted to fly out of the way, but was proven too slow. The water nicked its wing causing it to immediately spiral out of control and lose altitude.

"Now quick, Headbutt!" Gary yelled. With speed that betrayed the fact that the pokémon was a turtle, it ran off and collided its head with the torso of the bird.

The bird pokémon hit the floor hard. Ash could see that it was done, and needed a long rest. He reached down and pulled out his pokéball. "Return Spearow, I couldn't have asked for more, thanks!"

"Alright Ashy-boy, just a one on one now!" Gary smirked. "And there is no way you are going to beat my starter!"

"Oh yeah? C'mon out Pikachu!" Ash called out. Pikachu's head immediately popped out of Ash's bag. It jumped onto his shoulder then to the field.

"Pi, Pi kaa!" Pikachu called out.

"_No electricity attacks, Pikachu."_ Ash said through his Aura. He didn't want to accidentally cause damage to the water-type pokémon that wouldn't be curable. He wasn't even entirely sure if that was possible, but for now it was not a chance worth taking.

"My turn Gary, Pikachu quick attack!" Pikachu immediately disappeared from its spot and reappeared knocking squirtle off its feet. The pokémon was sent flying into Gary who also got knocked down by the force.

"Well I think that settles that, right Gary?" Ash chirped, as Pikachu found its way back onto his shoulder.

Gary let out a small groan and returned his squirtle back into its pokéball. "Well Ash, that Pikachu of yours is something else!" He let out a small sigh, "looks like you beat me fair and square, next time though, things will defiantly be different!"

Ash laughed, "Yeah, I am sure it will." Gary looked at him for a few moments then did something that Ash did not expect. He held out his hand, a small smirk playing on his face. Ash looked at his hand before clasping his own against it.

"Well Ash, smell ya later." Gary said waving one of his hands as he turned and made his way off back to his group of fans, who for once were not cheering.

"Well that was strange, ay Pikachu?" The small mouse nodded. "Oh well, now we are going to have to find out what we are going to do." Ash started walking away from pokémon center. "I guess we will just go to the next town then"

"ASH!" A voice echoed through the area. "WAIT UP!" Ash immediately turned around. That voice was familiar after all. In the distance he could see Brock running down the dirt path to catch up to him. Ash couldn't help but feel a small spark of hope.

"Brock? What are you doing here?" Ash asked as he finally caught up. The man took a few deep breaths, but looked a bit confused.

"What do you mean? Don't you remember anything!?" Brock yelled.

"Wait a minute, you remember now?" Ash asked, the spark of hope becoming a flame.

"Of cour-" Was all he got out before Ash tackled him in a hug. When the two finally parted, Ash had a huge grin on his face.

"You have no idea how glad I am that you remember!" Ash said still smiling. Pikachu even jumped onto Brock's shoulder and rubbed its cheek affectionately against his. He wasn't alone anymore!

"What do you mean? I woke up this morning in this little body!"

"I went up to the gym yesterday! You hadn't been, well, you." Ash said trying to explain the situation.

"Oh, yeah. My little brother told me that I had two battles yesterday, one of the challengers had a Pikachu. He had looked really confused when I asked him about it." Ash laughed.

"Yeah, I woke up about four days ago. I kept tripping over my feet at first!" The two of them laughed for a bit, as Ash explained what he had been up to.

"So where were you going after this?" Brock asked.

"Honestly, I had no idea what to do. I have no idea where Leon is right now and even if I did, I only have Pikachu here, and a spearow. There is no way I could defeat him in a battle right now." Ash said.

"A spearow?" Brock asked confused.

"Yeah I caught it on the way here, thought I might as well start building a team again. Do any of your pokémon remember anything?"

"I only had Steelix's pokéball with me at the time I went through, so he remembers, though he is an Onyx again." Ash's ears perked when he heard that.

"Wait, so the pokémon that you had in the pokéballs still remember!?" Ash asked getting excited.

"Yeah, though he seemed to be un-evolved. You should have seen him at first, he looked pissed." Brock chuckled. Ash laughed as he thought of a pissed off Onyx, then shuddered. That was always a scary thought.

"Well, I think that I know of three more pokémon that we can go get! I still had three of them on me when I went through the portal." Ash grinned. Maybe this won't be so bad after all.

"Come on out!" The darkness that had enveloped the world immediately disappeared. Light shined brightly, warming everything that it touched. The trees surrounding swayed from the slight breeze.

"Char-" The pokémon started to roar, but immediately stopped. Its body felt strange, somehow both foreign, yet familiar. "Char-" It tried again but its voice lacked the rough growl that made other pokémon tremble in fear. Instead it sounded...childish?

The pokémon looked down at its body and almost fainted. Its huge ferocious body was missing! In its place stood a small orange body with a white stomach. Its tail lacked weight and swayed back and forth in small swipes.

"Char...mander?" The pokémon said confused. It gazed around. In front of him stood a small pokémon, a Paras. Behind the bug pokémon was a small boy near the age of 11. Must have been the Pokémon's trainer.

"What are you doing!" A voice yelled out from behind him. The small orange lizard turned back and immediately saw red. The voice had belonged to its previous Trainer, oh how he hated its previous trainer. The pokémon immediately let out a torrent of superheated fire out at the trainer, who barely managed to jump out of the way.

The pokémon smirked, it's power hadn't diminished at all. He probably would have killed the boy if the flames had hit him. The boy that had stood across the field ran over to the trainer and helped the boy up to his feet. He glared down at the pokémon.

"What are you doing! He's you trainer!" He yelled. Charmander merely scoffed and looked the other way, crossing its arms over its small belly.

"Not anymore I'm not!" The boy yelled, holding his left arm that got burnt from just being near the fire. He grabbed Charmander's pokéball, "Release!" Instead of the familiar red beam, a blue beam shot out from its place and encircled charmander, freeing him from his imprisonment.

The two boys immediately left, heading straight towards the nearest pokémon center. Charmander looked around, this place looked familiar. Its eyes settled on a boulder, he immediately ran off and jumped on top of it, and sat. He knew this boulder, and knew that if he waited here long enough, his trainer would appear. The pokémon looked at the sky, and only hoped that the trainer would come soon.

Minutes turned into hours. The hours turned into days. The pokémon refused to move from the spot, even as its belly cried out for food. On the third day of waiting, he looked up at the sky. The clouds were puffy and had a slightly grayish tint to them, making it look like it may rain. He could remember these moments perfectly, tomorrow was the day that Ash had come to save him from the downpour.

"HEY!" Called a voice from the distance. It was a small boy, with a very familiar hat on. Charmander smiled and immediately jumped off the rock and ran towards the boy. Right before the two connected though, charmander let loose a small blast of fire, burning the boy to a crisp. Pikachu had barely managed to jump off of Ash's shoulders to avoid the burning flams.

"ehhh- heh, I missed you too Chariz-mander" Ash said smiling. Brock appeared behind him laughing.

"I guess some things never change, Ash." He cried out, knowing that Charizard's only way to show affection was to shoot flames at the boy.

"Yeah, sorry it took so long though, charmander, how long have you been out here for?"

The small pokémon held out its three claws, As Pikachu ran up to and started talking to him.

"Three days!?" Ash exclaimed. "You must be hungry."

The pokémon immediately nodded, looking towards Brock who always had food with him. Brock smiled and pulled out his bag, grabbing some already made pokémon food. He opened the container and let Charmander dig in.

"Alright Ash, so where do we go from here?"

They had just come from Cerulean City, where Ash met back up with Misty at the Gym. The battle was short, with Ash easily coming out on top. The two had decided beforehand to not have Misty come with them on their journey, Brock being the more logical one out of the two came up with the fact that she would hinder their journey rather than help, considering she did not know who the two of them were, and was not strong enough to actually help much. Though Ash hated it, he conceded the argument and the two moved on.

Previously, Ash did manage to find Bulbasaur once again, and despite the pokémon not knowing who they were he caught him. Bulbasaur had immediately taken a liking to Pikachu, and a rivalry with Spearow. The two would battle any chance they would get, not that Ash minded. A healthy rivalry always helped the training process. Now with Charmander here, Pikachu could also continue its training as well.

"Vermilion City I guess, like you told me, the best chance we have is to get in touch with the Champion, Lance." Ash said. "Fastest way to get in touch with him is to collect the gym badges and attend the tournament."

The two had decided that since they could not find any information about Leon, they would talk to the man that would be in the best position to help them. Ash wasn't sure if he would be able to help much, even in the past the Champions couldn't stop Leon. The man was too clever.

Not only that, but there was also the issue that Lance may not even listen to them. Think about it. The two just show up, at the mere age of 10 and 15, claiming that there is a man out to destroy the world? It would sound more like the two were crazy or just lying for the attention.

"Alright Charmander, so you coming with us?" Ash asked. He knew he didn't have to but it just felt like he should. Seeing Charmander's nod, he got out a pokéball and caught the pokémon. He put the pokéball back on his belt and looked over to Brock who was looking back expectantly.

"What?"

"No 'I just caught a Charmander!' pose?" Brock asked his grin widening.

"Sphs, I am too old for that now." Ash said, though he was turning red from embarrassment.

"Oh please, you did that two weeks ago when you caught that Drifloon!" Brock laughed much to Ash's embarrassment. Even Pikachu fell down onto its back laughing.

"Shut up!" Ash yelled.

Cynthia let out a sigh of relief as she saw two kids standing out in the middle of the road, a small Pikachu stood beside them. She had been hopelessly and utterly lost. She had been walking around the open fields for hours! The Nurse Joy at the pokémon center had said it was a straight shot to Cerulean City, and yet here she was with no idea where she was. _That nurse must've given me bad directions._

"Oh please, you did that two weeks ago when you caught that Drifloon!" She heard the larger of the two laugh, making the smaller one look down. The Pikachu was rolling on the floor laughing beside them.

"Shut up!" the small one yelled, making the two laugh even harder.

_Drifloon? But they're only native to Sinnoh. _Cynthia thought to herself. These two boys must have come from her home region.

She cautiously walked up to the two, both of them had yet to notice her presence.

"Hello?" she started. "Would one of you two please point me in the direction of Cerulean City?" The two had finally stopped joking around, and were looking at her strangely.

One of them looked like he was ten years old. He was shorter than her and the other boy. He held himself up rather well though. Though right now, he was looking at her in shock, and what looked to be disbelief.

The other boy was slightly taller. He had tanned skin and dark brown spiky hair. He was staring at her in surprise as well. Was there something on her face?

She was about to ask why they were staring at her when the small pikachu jumped up onto her shoulder and started rubbing its cheek against hers. She let out a small giggle.

"Oh, sorry about that," the shorter boy said, seemingly snapping out of his daze. "Pikachu really likes to meet new people."

"It's alright. He looks so cute!" she said, petting the pokémon on the top of its head with her hand. "So, do either of you know how to get to Cerulean?" she asked again.

This time the tanned man answered. "Yeah, it's straight down this path. Just walk for about two hours and you should be there."

Cynthia smiled, "Thanks a lot, I had gotten lost for a while." She started to make her way around the two, the Pikachu, much to her disappointment, jumped off her shoulders back onto the small boy's. She kept going until the boy stopped her.

"Sorry, I don't mean to be rude but may I ask why you're going all the way to Cerulean City?" he asked quickly. Cynthia stared at him strangely, why was this kid curious on what she was doing?

"Oh, I'm a pokémon trainer, so I'm going to the gym to battle for a badge," she said smiling, starting to make her way forward again.

"I could save you the trouble," this time it was the voice of the man who had given her the directions. She stopped again and turned back.

"My name is Brock, the gym leader at Pewter city." This sparked Cynthia's interest. Though he was a bit young to be a gym leader, but if what he was saying was true, then this would save her from making another trip.

"Oh really?" Cynthia asked. He nodded.

"Yes, and since I am a gym leader I also have no need for this badge that I got at Cerulean City," Brock started. "So if you can beat my little friend here, I will give you both mine and Cerulean's badges."

"What? I have to battle? What's with that?!" Ash grumbled off-screen.

Though she didn't seem particularly against it, she was also curious as to why she had to fight the young boy instead of the actual Gym Leader.

"I want to see how strong you are." Brock said with pride to Cynthia.

Ash continued raging off-screen. "Hey! Don't forcefully ignore me! What am I, the drunk chick at a party?!"

It didn't really matter who she had to battle. If she could get her hands on those badges by beating the boy then so be it. But wait… It suddenly clicked in.

_I've brought myself up believing that earning a badge takes skill and effort – skill and effort applied to earning _one_ badge at a time. While I would be earning a badge by battling his friend, it wouldn't be fair if I would go on to win both of them without giving the Cerulean Gym Leader a fair fight as well. How would he like it if I was given a Boulder Badge without even battling him? Lousy, I'd bet._

Ash and Brock had noticed Cynthia was taking quite a while to decide. Brock was offering a very rare and valuable opportunity for any trainer, and Ash realized he could have a very worthwhile match with the future Sinnoh champion.

As much of an opportunist as she wanted to be, Cynthia couldn't find it in herself to accept this offer when she remembered her core values. It just wouldn't feel ri-

"I'll let you pet Pikachu later."

"Alright, I accept." she said, starting to walk off the trail to the open grass land. The boy let out a small laugh, and started to make his way to the opposite side. He grinned, as if he had just thought of a good idea.

Brock decided to play referee, "This is a one-on-one battle between Ash Ketchum and Cy-uh, ahem… What was your name again?" He seemed to stumble just before the name.

"It's 'Cynthia'," she said with a smile. The kid looked like he was ten, so this battle should not be too tough at all. After all, being ten is when most kids start off on their journey. But then again, that didn't make much sense if they were in Sinnoh just a while ago.

"Alright, Ash since you are the one being challenged, you are the first to send out your pokémon." Brock said. Ash nodded, already having his pokéball in his hand.

"I hope you're ready, Cynthia," Ash said as he tossed his pokéball. "Come on out, Charmander!" The small orange lizard appeared from the ball.

"Char, char!" It barked, then frowned as if it was disappointed in itself. The pokémon heard small sniggers coming from behind and glared at Ash and Pikachu, who whistled and looked away. He turned back to see his opponent and was shocked to see who it was. He turned back around to Ash and pointed a thumb at Cynthia with a nervous 'you kidding me?' look. Ash just shrugged his shoulders and gave a mocking thumbs-up. Charmander returned a deadpan expression.

"_A charmander?_" Cynthia whispered to herself, pulling out her pokédex.

"_Be-beep! Charmander. The Lizard Pokémon._ _A flame burns on the tip of its tail from birth. It is said that a charmander dies if its flame ever goes out. According to statistics, it is the most popular choice for starting trainers from the Kanto region, likely because of the sheer awesomeness of its final evolution Charizard."_

"_Once again, this smart-mouthed pokédex gives me useless facts,"_ Cynthia complained as she pocketed the device. She knew that it was the fire-type starter pokémon from this region, but this was her first time seeing one. "Alright, then. C'mon out, Gabite!" she called, throwing out her pokéball, releasing the blue land-shark. The pokémon gave a loud growl in its attempt of intimidation.

"_I've seen better growls from a kitten."_ Charmander mocked in pokémon speech.

Gabite's vein nearly popped. "_Where would you like me to bury your brain? Closer to your heart or your gallbladder?_

From across the field, Cynthia could see Ash nearly dancing in anticipation for the fight._ I guess he really likes battling, huh? He's such a kid… Wait, where did that come from?_

"Alright, Cynthia, first move is all yours!" Ash grinned.

"Fine by me. Gabite, use earthquake and then hit it with a Dragon Pulse!" The Pokémon immediately roared and smashed its foot against the ground, causing the ground to start shaking, cracks started to appear from each side causing Charmander to lose balance and fall to its knees.

Before the tremors stopped, the familiar blue beam of Dragon pulse shot from the Gabite's mouth towards Charmander.

"Fight it back with Flamethrower!" Ash yelled.

"_Fire Style! Fireball Jutsu!" _The fire-type pokémon, still on the ground, launched its Flamethrower, the flames immediately warming the surrounding area. The two moves collided, but then, to Cynthia's immediate surprise, the Flamethrower started to push back against the Dragon Pulse, forcing it closer and closer to Gabite.

"_No way_…" Cynthia whispered in disbelief. _How could a starter have so much power in its first state? I swear, if this kid's been dealing with illegal Rare Candy dealers, I'm gonna report him. _ She couldn't do anything but watch as the blue beam got pushed back until Gabite itself took the hit, immediately causing an explosion. Dust and debris flew into the air.

As the dust settled, her Gabite was still standing tall. She let out breath of relief that she hadn't even realized she was holding. The pokémon did look tired though; its breaths were coming out a lot quicker than normal. There were also a few scorch marks on the dragon's body.

Charmander on the other hand, still looked like he was ready to go. Not a single scratch on him. This boy was definitely not a normal trainer.

"Hang in there Gabite, can you still fight?" Cynthia asked, rhyming. Seeing the pokémon nod, she smiled. She wasn't out of this yet. If this kid had her outmatched in power, then she would have to take a more strategic approach.

"Charmander, Fire Blast and then use Overheat!" Cynthia gasped as she heard the two powerful fire-type moves called out. Charmander immediately sent out a wave of fire that that took the shape of the Daimonji of the Japanese festival 'Gozan no Okuribi'.

"Gabite, Dig!" Gabite didn't need to be told twice and immediately went underground, avoiding the powerful fire attack. But instead of Charmander immediately releasing its next attack, the orange lizard ran forward at an incredible speed towards the hole. "Gabite, come back out!" Cynthia yelled seeing what that fire pokémon was up to.

As she yelled, charmander released the powerful attack straight into the hole. Suddenly, the ground behind the fire type pokémon began to collapse. Then a burst of fire shot from the hole and with it the Land Shark Pokémon.

"_They don't call me _Char-_mander for nothing!"_

"_Lame!"_ Gabite still found time to insult Charmander through the fire and flames.

"Gabite, Dragon Rush!" Cynthia yelled. The dragon immediately glowed purple, and flew straight into charmander, sending the small fire-type flying back across the field near Ash.

It immediately stood back up and growled in anger. "Charmander, Char char!"

"You're pretty good, Cynthia!" Ash said, smiling. The boy had a large smile on his face, not even worried about the hit that his pokémon just took.

"Glad I didn't disappoint!" she called back. She looked at her pokémon. The dragon was definitely in pain. The bottom of its right foot seemed burnt, making Cynthia frown. That would definitely hamper its speed.

Looking up towards the small fire-type pokémon, she could tell that the Dragon Rush hadn't done as much damage as she was hoping for. The pokémon's breathing was rugged, and there were a few scratches on its body, but other than that it seemed ready to go.

"Charmander, Flamethrower, aim slightly left!" The boy yelled out, causing Cynthia's eyes to widen in shock. He was taking advantage of her pokémon's damaged foot.

Cynthia frowned, newly focused. _He fights like an older man, nothing held back. Admirable… but mistaken._ "Gabite, dodge! Then use Draco Meteor!" Cynthia called out.

The pokémon immediately jumped to the right off its damaged foot, causing it to grimace in pain slightly. Now out of harm's way, the pokémon released the powerful dragon-type attack, launching the ball of energy into the air. The ball, reaching its peak, immediately broke apart into a multitude of larger energy balls falling from the sky.

"Charmander, dodge between them, and use Flare Blitz!" Ash called out.

"_No way!_" Cynthia whispered, Ash once again managing to surprise her. There was no way this pokémon could dodge all of the attacks. She could only watch as the pokémon maneuvered between the falling meteors, as if it has done it a thousand times. Suddenly the pokémon became engulfed in a red aura, signifying the start of the Flare Blitz attack.

"Gabite, Outrage!" Cynthia called out. The pokémon immediately obliged, letting loose its own powerful attack. The charmander took the hits from the barrage of flying orbs head-on, but continued on its course, determined to reach its mark.

Milliseconds later, there was a loud explosion as Charmander crashed into Gabite's scaly body. A large amount of dust scattered around the two, leaving its spectators in anticipation. As the dust settled, it revealed two figures struggling to stand.

"_If I wasn't so… _sleepy_ right now… I'd kick your butt!_" Gabite growled painfully through its teeth.

"_Hey… Guess what?_" Charmander said, getting Gabite's attention. As soon as Gabite raised its head, it saw Charmander glowing that particular glow.

"_Aw, hell no!_" Gabite roared, starting to glow alongside its opponent. After a few seconds, lo and behold, two new pokémon had appeared after the duo of evolutions.

The larger of the two, let out a piercing roar. Its large blue body seemingly healed back to peak shape. It was now over twice as tall as it used to be. Its razor sharp teeth threatening anything that dared come near it.

"_Garchomp_?" Cynthia whispered. Her Gabite had finally evolved into a Garchomp! She had Gabite for almost two years now since her Gible evolved. Now the pokémon was in its peak form!

The other smaller red pokémon also looked pleased with its new body, as it looked down at itself in pride. Though after a moment, the pokémon seemed disappointed with its body. But with a clench of its claws, it realized that its eventual evolution back into Charizard could mean he could become even more powerful than before with the youth and experience it now has.

"Charmeleon!" It yelled out, getting ready to battle again. Garchomp also looked ready to fight in its new body. The two pokémon glared at each other, both ready to follow any command given to them at any moment.

"Enough!" Brock called from the sideline with a large smile on his face, "I have seen what I needed."

Both Garchomp and Charmeleon thought the same thing. …_Son of a…!_

"Aww, Brock! But I was about to win!" Ash called out, actually acting the same age as his body for once.

"Yeah right, punk! There was no way I was going to lose!" Cynthia laughed. She was kind of upset with not being able to finish the battle, but as long as she got the badges, and the chance to pet Pikachu, it would be fine. "So can I get the badges?"

Brock nodded, reaching inside his vest to grab the two badges, "Alright here you go. You're a pretty strong trainer if you managed to keep up with Ash's charmander."

"Thanks, I guess," Cynthia replied, then turned towards the shorter boy standing at her side. "Actually, how did you get so strong? I have never seen such a powerful pokémon in its first stage like that before."

The boy rubbed the back of his head and laughed a bit. "I guess I'm just a good trainer then?"

"Yeah, he trains almost non-stop" Brock said, handing the two badges to her.

"And how long have you been a trainer?" Cynthia asked.

"A little more than a week now." Cynthia looked at him strangely. She could have sworn that she had heard them talking about a drifloon that he caught _two_ weeks ago.

"So, you are from Sinnoh right?" Brock asked before Cynthia could ask Ash anything else. Seeing her turn to look at him confusedly, he explained, "Your Garchomp, they are only found in the Sinnoh Region, so I assumed that's where you are from."

Cynthia smiled, "Yeah I came from Sinnoh, I'm actually here in search of help." Ash's ears immediately perked.

"Help? For what?" He asked.

"You don't watch a lot of news, do you, Mr. Ash? There's this gang in Sinnoh, who have taken control of almost the entire region already. I was hoping to get in contact with the champion here personally, but the only way to do that seems to be by collecting all of these badges for the tournament."

"Wouldn't the authorities be better to contact?" Brock asked, rubbing his chin in thought.

Cynthia shook her head and frowned, "The Sinnoh authorities don't have the same power as Champions. I don't believe they are strong enough to stop them."

"A gang in Sinnoh?" Ash echoed, "Do you happen to know if they are led by a man named 'Leon'?"

Cynthia let out a small gasp in surprise, "Yeah, they are! How did you know that?" The boy looked at Brock, who just stared back. There was something these two weren't telling her.

"_Should we tell her Brock?" _Ash's voice echoed inside his head. He was trying to think of all the possibilities that telling her could cause, but none seemed to really matter. Leon had already changed the time-line. Cynthia had proven that just by being here.

Instead of answering Ash, he began to talk, "Cynthia, how long ago did Leon show up in Sinnoh?"

Cynthia seemed to notice the change in subject but decided to go along with it. "He showed up almost ten years ago." She answered.

"WHAT!" Both of them yelled. "What has he been doing this entire time?" Cynthia seemed to be getting more and more confused.

"The first sign of when he appeared was when he took down the organization known as Team Plasma." Cynthia said, "Then they all but vanished for years, until recently when he took complete control of Sinnoh with his new gang, known as the Crusaders."

"He must have been recruiting secretly the entire time," Brock guessed. "To think he already has an army behind him."

Ash remained quiet, just looking at the floor. He seemed to be in deep thought about something.

"So are you two going to tell me who you are?" Cynthia asked.

Ash was in deep thought. He couldn't believe that the two of them had run into Cynthia so randomly in Kanto. Worst part of it all was that she WAS in Kanto. He has known Cynthia for over eight years, and ever since he had become champion the two had become close. From what she had told him about her journey, he knew that she hadn't even set foot in the Kanto region until after she became Champion of Sinnoh at the age of twenty. Her being here meant that Leon has been changing things.

"So are you two going to tell me who you are?" He heard her ask. He hadn't realized how much he missed the sound of her voice until now.

Ash let out a sigh, "You're not going to believe us if we tell you."

"You would be surprised by how big of an imagination I have." Ash laughed internally. He knew exactly how big of an imagination she had. Maybe she wouldn't react poorly to the news. He let out a large sigh and just went for it.

"We are from the future."

One second… Two… Three… Four… She was smiling now. Five… Six… She couldn't hold it for much longer. Seven… Eight… Nine… Ten… Ele-

She started laughing.

"No seriously, who are you two!?" She said still giggling. Looking at the two boys, neither of them were smiling. "Oh god, you're serious… Oh god, you're serious?!"

"You are from Sinnoh, so you should know about the legendary pokémon, Dialga, right?" Brock asked, after seeing her nod he continued. "Well, we were chasing Leon to the Spear Columns. We finally caught up to him at the top of the ancient mountain when he summoned Dialga, and took control over it. He used its power to go through time, and we chased in after him."

"You asked me how Charmander was so strong," Ash said. "Well, he was one of the pokémon in my pokéballs when I went through the portal, except he was a Charizard at the time."

"Then what are you two doing here in Kanto!?" Cynthia yelled. "Can't the two of you do anything to stop Leon?"

Ash frowned. "Not at the moment. Aside from Bulbasaur and Spearow, I only have Pikachu and Charmeleon, who share my memories of the future, but likely won't be strong enough to fight Leon. Who knows how strong his Pokémon are now?"

"We were actually doing the same thing you were," Brock started. "Collecting the badges so that we can talk to the champion."

Cynthia thought, _Wait… If this is a matter of such grave importance, why don't they use whatever means they have to at least contact the Champion's subordinates and make their way to a talk with the Champion? They could prove their words are true by showing their pokémon's skills and talking about the future. And even if that wouldn't work out, why would going through this year's pokémon league and becoming tournament champion beforehand mean anything in a life and death situation? Isn't it a waste of valuable time? _Cynthia let out sigh. "Isn't there anything else you could do?"

"The only thing we can do for now is get stronger. We still have to wait for the tournament before we do anything."

_Y-…Your kidding me, right?_ "I guess I will go with you two then," Cynthia said with a small smile, at least happy to not be alone. "That is, if you two don't mind me tagging along."

Ash smiled, "If you hadn't asked, we would have."

"So where are we headed?" Cynthia asked.

"To Vermilion City." Ash said.

"Really? I just came from there, follow me, I know the way." Cynthia said, starting to walk off.

"Eh, Cynthia, Vermilion is the other way." Brock called out to her. Cynthia sweat-dropped and turned back around, her face tinted pink in embarrassment, causing Ash to start laughing loudly.

"Your sense of directions is still the same I see." Ash said, still laughing. Cynthia eyes widen in surprise.

"Did you know me before you came back in time?" She asked. Ash stopped laughing and smiled, he nodded.

"Yeah we both did, you were quite famous actually." Ash said. "Though your sense of directions were absolutely horrible everywhere except in Sinnoh for some reason."

Cynthia childishly stuck out her tongue causing both of them to laugh again.

"So I was famous? What for?" Cynthia asked.

"You became the Champion of Sinnoh." Ash answered making her gasp in surprise. "You were twenty when it happened."

"_So in two years, I would have been Champion?_" Cynthia whispered. It was always a dream of hers to become champion, right behind discovering ancient ruins and artifacts that revealed more about pokémon and the past. "How old _are_ you two really, anyway?"

"I am twenty-five," Brock said.

"I'm twenty," Ash said.

"Pi, Pi pi." Pikachu held out both of its hands as to give its answer.

Ash laughed, "He said he's fourteen years old."

"Huh. W-Wait, you can understand him?" Cynthia asked in awe.

"Me and Pikachu have a very close bond." he chuckled as Pikachu nodded from his shoulder. "Alright, let's get going before it gets too dark."

They made it to the Pokémon center as the sun began to set. The three had rented separate rooms and planned to meet in the lobby in the morning. Ash sat on the bed trying to think things through. Meeting Cynthia was a blow to the gut. Back in the past/future the two had been close. He would like to think that they would have been together if it wasn't for the fact that the two were Champions. Because being Champions wedges an immovable emotional blockade between two people for some reason.

Now he got to see her again, but was in a ten-year-old body. Things wouldn't go the way he wanted them to.

He let out a sigh, "Might as well go to sleep then." He laid back on the bed, and shut his eyes.

A small sound in the corner of the room made wake back up. He looked towards the dark corner. On a chair sat a cloaked figure. Ash was about to move when it lifted its hand making him freeze in place, as a light blue glow ensnared around him.

"Hello, Ash," The unmistakable baritone voice came.

"What are you doing here, Mewtwo?" Ash asked. He knew the Genetic Pokémon would not help him. He tried to seek his support in the past, but the Pokémon refused.

"I am here to find out exactly what happened." He said, moving closer to Ash. His eyes began to glow and Ash could feel the Pokémon searching through his mind._ "_Hmm, so that's how it is." Mewtwo hummed to himself.

"What exactly are you here for?" Ash asked again, getting irritated that the Pokémon searched through his memories without even asking.

"Arceus wishes to speak with you."

**On a scale 1-10 how mad are you?**

**:)**

**No worries, I will try to update as soon as I can. Can't just leave you all hanging!**

**REVIEW!**

**~Ohaeder**


	4. A talk with a God

**How's it going everyone! See I didn't make you wait so long this time! :)**

******Huge thanks to Nauran, for being my Beta and more so for something I will reveal at the end!**

******Beta's note: I am the beta, you can call me 'Nauran'. Don't call me anything else, just 'cause my name sounds foreign. I won't accept anything less than the absolute best, that's why I give my all in case you haven't guessed. I beta for this story because I'm really up for it, and hopefully I can continue rhyming like a poet. So without further ado I give to you, the next chapter in this adventure for you to… view? My god, that's terrible. I'm fired.**

******Author: You would have been if it wasn't for the complement before that disaster ^.^**

**You all enjoy!**

**9,055 Words.**

* * *

"Arceus wishes to speak with you."

Ash looked at Mewtwo. Arceus wanted to speak with him?

He let out a humorless laugh. "What could the great and powerful Arceus want to talk with me about? I tried seeking his counsel long ago, only for him to do absolutely nothing!"

Ash had, long ago, went to great lengths to talk with Arceus, the founder of the Universe. The first pokémon ever created who gave life to everything in the world. When Ash finally got in contact with the Legendary Pokémon, it forcefully refused to help him fight against Leon, claiming that it would break one of his most ancient and sacred laws if he directly interfered with the world's problems.

"So you refuse to come with me to speak with him?" Mewtwo's baritone voice held a rare hint of humor in it, which put Ash on edge.

"Tell Arceus that I said 'fuck off'," he said. He only cursed when he was truly pissed off, and that was only on very rare occasions.

"I will be sure to deliver the message," Mewtwo said. Suddenly, the room flashed a bright white, causing Ash to shield his eyes. A few seconds later, the bright light dispersed. Ash opened his eyes again, only to realize he wasn't in the room anymore. Looking around he could see the ancient pillars standing over him, making him feel like an ant compared to them.

He knew where he was. This was the Hall of Origin, a place that only Legendary Pokémon were allowed in. Well, them and the so called 'Chosen One', the hero who was supposed to save the world.

"Arceus, I bring you a message from our Chosen One." He heard Mewtwo's voice from beside him. "He says 'fuck you'. And I brought him here as you wished."

Ash turned to Mewtwo. "Nice to see you're finally developing a sense of humor," he muttered. Mewtwo looked at him with his head slightly askew.

Suddenly, there was a loud laugh that seemed to resonate from the air itself. The voice had a very deep tone to it and echoed through the halls.

"Ash, I am so glad you could make it," the same voice as before said. "Mewtwo, leave us for now." Mewtwo merely nodded and vanished. Ash couldn't help but find it a little strange how easily Mewtwo obeyed the command given to it. The pokémon always seemed as if it was its own boss. Seeing otherwise was strange.

"Well, it is not like I had a choice in the matter," Ash mumbled. "What do you want Arceus?"

"I _want _nothing," It said. "What I need however is something far different."

"Then what is it that You need?"

"I am in need of you to dispatch Leon from this world," The voice said, laced with anger. "He has tampered with My laws and will be punished. As My Chosen One, it is your duty to carry out My will!"

"THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN TRYING TO DO!" Ash yelled frustrated, "Why won't You just step in and take care of him, or at the very least tell me what he is trying to do!"

"I told you once before Ash, I will not interfere with the world's problem unless it is a last resort."

"What would You consider a 'last resort'?" Ash asked. The man had already traveled into the past and created his own army. How could that not be the point in where Arceus would step in?

"What would I consider 'last resort'? When _every_ human in the world has _lost_ _the_ _will_ _to_ _fight_ against this man," Arceus said, making Ash's mind go completely blank. "When there is truly no hope for man to take care of their problems, that is when I will step in."

"What!?" Ash yelled. "Millions upon millions of people will die before that ever happens!"

"BILLIONS HAVE ALREADY DIED!" The voice boomed, knocking Ash off of his feet. "When Leon forced Dialga to open up the portal to the past, almost as soon as he walked through, people started dying. That timeline no longer exists, and everyone in it has lost their life!"

"_N-No… that's impossible_..." Ash whispered. Everyone he knew had died, aside from Brock and a few of his pokémon. "_But I_… They are still here! I saw Misty and Cynthia!"

"As true as that is, they are no longer the same people," Arceus said. "The ones you knew before, the ones that know you and have shared their lives with you are no longer alive."

"What if I stop Leon!? Brock and I will be able to return to our future, won't we?! You could have Dialga send us back!" Tears began threatening to fall from his eyes.

"You're a fool Ash," Arceus said, its voice returning back to its monotone. "That timeline… no… longer… exists."

Ash broke down. The tears that were threatening to fall were now rolling down his cheeks. He felt lost inside his head. He had hoped that somehow they would be able to get back to his time, but that was clearly impossible. He would be stuck here, reliving his life without any of his friends by his side. How would he make it through life without them?

"Ash, you _will_ defeat Leon, or face the punishment that will be set up for you if you fail to acc-"

"Shut up!" Ash yelled, his voice filled with rage. "I am tir-"

"You insolent FOOL!" The voice roared, echoing for a long silence. Ash immediately froze in place, waiting until the menacing echo faded. Once it was gone, Arceus continued. "You will _never_ display such audacity toward Me again. You may be the Chosen One, but I can find another."

Ash opened his mouth to shout back, but the voice roared over him once more. "NO! …The time for talk has come to an end. You will listen to Me now and do as I say."

Ash glared at the floor, but didn't say anything else.

"Good, now I _do_ truly want to help you, Ash," The voice said making Ash scoff. Arceus continued, ignoring the sound. "I will send for the two other pokémon that you brought with you from the past." Ash merely nodded. He was happy that he would see his pokémon again, but he wasn't in the mood to cheer about it. "I will also restore your body to its formal look." As he spoke, Ash's body began to give off the similar glow that a pokémon's would when evolving. When the white light dispersed, Ash's body had grown taller, bringing him back to his normal six foot two. His clothes seemed to have grown along with him, as they still fit perfectly on his body.

"Now, I trust that you will not fail Me again, Ash."

Ash looked up and hesitantly spoke. "Can you also change Brock back to his regular body?"

"You misinterpret my gifts. This is not charity. I am doing this only to help you along with your quest."

Ash let out sigh, Brock wasn't going to be happy. "How am I supposed to defeat Leon anyway? He's had ten years to strengthen himself and his pokémon."

"When the time comes, I will assist you once again. Until then… build an army."

"Build… an army," Ash repeated, shocked. How was he supposed to do such a thing?

"The only way to defeat an army is with another, Ash," The voice rang out. "Leon has spent most of the last ten years forming and fortifying his gang. It now has nearly a thousand men and women in it, all fighting for his cause."

Ash gritted his teeth. "Well, how the hell am I supposed to build an army?"

"That, Ash, I will leave up to you." The voice sounded slightly amused by his frustration.

"Can you at least tell me what he is trying to do?" he asked.

"The girl that is with you, Cynthia, she knows. You can ask her," said the voice, making Ash look up in surprise. "Why are you so surprised? Did you think it was mere coincidence that she was able to avoid Leon her entire life and end up back with you? She is one of the few people able to read the ancient dialogue on the cavern walls."

"You protected her?"

"I merely made sure that she would not be captured. I even hid you from Leon for the past ten years, until your conscious made its way back to your body."

"Thank you," Ash growled through gritted teeth. He hated the fact that he had to thank the pokémon, but it did protect one of his friends. That was worth more than his pride.

"I did it to only aid your quest, young Chosen One."

"Fine. May I go now?" Ash asked. He knew what he had to do now. Despite how much he hated Arceus, He was the only one with a plan.

"Not just yet. Before you go, there is one other thing I shall give you." The voice sounded almost disgusted by what it was about to say. "One of my children has foolishly decided to follow you. Despite my arguments, she has made her mind up and I cannot change it."

As he spoke, something nudged Ash on his back. Ash looked behind him and let out a small gasp. There stood a large blue and white dog. Its long purple mane flowed elegantly across its back. It let out a small howl and nudged his side again.

"Suicune? You want to join me?" Ash whispered, almost cautiously. He could remember how he met this Suicune, though at the time the pokémon was injured and in need of help. Ash spent almost a month by its side, bringing the pokémon food and water and changing the bandages that he had sloppily placed on it. He wanted to take the Legendary to a pokémon center, so that it could heal properly, but the way it had reacted to Ash when they first met kept him from taking it anywhere near people.

Not only that, but the pokémon was literally a living legend. If anyone saw it in its weakened state, they would not hesitate to take advantage of the elegant beast.

Ash slowly got one his pokéballs that were always hanging on his belt and held it towards the dog. He held it in a way so that the pokémon would have to reach forward and push the small button to capture itself, giving the option fully to the pokémon. It only took a second before the legend did just that, the red glow enveloped it, causing it vanish without a trace.

Ash clutched the small ball In his hands. Hope was starting to fill him once again. With the help of a Legendary pokémon, he would be one step closer to defeating Leon. Sure it was not even close, but it was defiantly a step in the right direction.

"_**I will provide my assistance as well." **_A voice appeared inside his head, causing ash to look around. A dark shadow in the floor started emerging from the ground. It revealed a floating black and red pokémon, its white hair seemed to defy gravity, much like its body did.

"What is the meaning of this, Darkrai!" Arceus voice growled.

"_**I have a debt to pay, and this seems like the best way to return the favor." **_ The voice said inside his head again. The dark pokémon looked at Ash, sending chills down his spine. _**"Do you accept my**__**offer?"**_

Ash looked at him. He knew the debt he was talking about, "I told you before that you don't owe me anything."

"_**So you refuse then?"**_

Ash sighed, and held out a pokéball, the same way he did for Suicune, giving the choice fully to Darkrai. The dark pokémon reached out and touched the ball with it's hand, the red glow encircling it before vanishing.

"It seems my children are fond of you." Arceus growled.

Ash just nodded, suddenly a question formed inside his head.

"How is it that you all even remember what happened in the past? You didn't go through the portal."

The voice let out a mocking laugh, "You think that I could give a son of mine the power of time and not have it myself?" The pokémon questioned sarcastically. "As for the other 'legendaries', as you call them, I protected their minds, like I would have yours if you had not made it through the portal."

Ash nodded, he opened his mouth to ask another question but the voice beat him to it.

"Now get out of my sight." Ash looked around. The Hall of Origins was impossible for him to leave just by walking.

"How am I supp-" Was all he got out when the familiar bright flash of light appeared around him. They were back in the dark room in the pokémon center. The room seemed a lot warmer than before they left. Mewtwo stood in his cloaked figured a few feet behind him.

"Thanks, Mewtwo." Ash said. He sat down on the bed and looked down at the pokéball still clutched in his hands. When he looked back up Mewtwo was still standing their. There was a strange crackle noise outside of the door. "What is it?"

"The pokémon Center is on fire." His baritone voice came out. Almost as soon as he said it, the air filled with a heavy smoke, sending Ash into a fit of coughs. The heat suddenly flared as the wooden door to the hallway collapsed in flames. Ash quickly buried his mouth in his shirt, preventing smoke from getting in.

"Ugh… Mewtwo! Can you get everyone out of here?" Ash yelled his voice muffled through the shirt.

Mewtwo merely nodded and in a flash they were in a nearby forest. Ash immediately looked around to see if their was any danger around them. He could see the smoke rising from the pokémon center in the distance. They were in the nearby forest.

Cynthia and Brock were still laying down on the ground, asleep. Pikachu had woken up just before they teleported and was frantically looking around trying to find out what happened. Its eyes fell upon Ash and the cloaked figured, it immediately jumped onto Ash's shoulders and let a few sparks of electricity crackle out from its cheeks.

"Don't worry Pikachu, it's just Mewtwo." Ash said. The small pokémon nodded but kept up its guard.

"Who started the fire?"

"You should know the answer to that." Mewtwo said

"What about everyone else in the pokémon Center!" Ash yelled.

"They... are already gone, Ash." Mewtwo said and vanished without another word.

Ash was speechless at that news for a moment, but soon growled. Of course it was Leon, who else would it have been? He was the cause of even more people dying. He would make the man pay for all of his crimes.

Looking at Brock and Cynthia he decided to let them sleep a little longer. He let out a small sigh as his eyes went back to Brock. The man's body was still one of a early teens. The man was going to be furious when he woke up and saw Ash.

Then his eyes fell upon Cynthia's sleeping figure. He could feel his frustration crumble away as he watched her. She was sleeping soundly against the cool forest floor. Small twigs were now stuck in locks of her hair. She curled up in a ball trying to warm herself and let out a small satisfied sigh. Ash smiled as he watched her. He couldn't help it. He always loved the rare chances he got to watch as Cynthia slept in the past. Looking at her now reminded him of how close the two used to be.

He sat down and let out a sigh. He started to subconsciously play with some of the twigs that were on the ground while thinking about how he was supposed to build an army. Suddenly he remembered, Arceus had said that he would return the pokémon he brought with him! He quickly went to his belt and found the two new pokéballs hanging off the belt. He moved away from the two who were still sleeping to avoid accidentally waking them.

"Come on out guys!" He called releasing the two pokéballs. The familiar red glow lit the dark forest as two pokémon appeared from the ball.

The first one that appeared was a very familiar land-shark. The small pokémon was looking down at its body in surprise, but then let out a strange gurgling sound as if it was laughing. It looked around, seeing Ash it immediately jumped through the air and bit down softly on the top of his head.

Leave it to Gible to not mind its predicament.

Ash bellowed in laughter "Yeah I missed you to buddy." The small pokémon retreated back to the ground and ran up to pikachu.

"Pii, Pika pi pi pika!" Pikachu started telling Gible everything that has happen.

The other pokémon, as unbelieving as it may sound, seemed to care even less. It had it large jaws open as it dance back and forth onto each foot, seemingly without a care in the world.

"Toto, totodile!" The pokémon cheered. It moved towards Ash and dance around him.

"As hyper as ever eh, buddy?" Ash said laughing at his pokémon's antics. Totodile had to be the most carefree of all of them, seeming that it only wanting to have fun. Ash smiled as he watch Pikachu explain the predicament to the other two.

"Who are you?" He heard Cynthia's voice come from behind him, "and where have you brought us?" The voice seemed angry, almost hostile.

Ash slowly turned around confused, he noticed that Garchomp was let loose from his pokéball and was baring its large fangs at Ash.

"Cynthia? What are you talking abou-" Then it clicked. He was back in his normal body again, and she had never seen him like this before.

"How do you know my name?" She asked glaring at him.

"It's me Ash."

"Impossible! Ash is just a little boy!" She said, "Now who are you?" The pokémon had stopped chatting amongst themselves. Two of them were confused by what was going on, while Pikachu just looked amused.

"I am telling you it's me Ash! Wake up Brock, he'll tell you!" Ash said. Cynthia never stopped looking at him as she called out Brocks name.

"Brock!" She yelled into night. In return all she got was a loud snore. She gritted her teeth and call again, this time even louder.

"Uhh, WHAT!" Brock yelled. He sat up and let out a large yawn, while looking around. About half way through his yawn he realized he wasn't in the pokémon center anymore. "What! Where are we!" He yelled standing up quickly still looking around.

"Brock, tell her you who I am?" Ash called out to him. Brock made his way over to stand by Cynthia. Ash looking at the two of them stand side by side made him start to quake with laughter, seeing as how Brock stood almost a foot shorter than Cynthia. Ash was now about half a foot taller than her now.

Brock seemed to go into shock as he saw Ash in his old body. Quickly he looked down at himself, only too frown. "What The Hell Ash!" he yelled, his tan face seemed to start getting a dark shade of red. "How did you get your body back!"

"Eh heh, well," Ash started, scratching the back of his head. Cynthia, seeing the potential threat was gone, recalled her Garchomp. "You see, Arceus called me to him."

"You met Arceus!" Cynthia gasped. The pokémon was so ancient that many people only believed him to be legend.

"Unpleasant pokémon." Ash grumbled. "Well he gave me back my body and-"

"WHAT ABOUT ME!" Brock growled. Ash wasn't the best at reading emotions, but even he could tell that Brock was pissed off.

"I TRIED!" Ash yelled back. "He said something about his gifts not being charity."

"Gifts?" Cynthia asked intrigued.

"Yeah he returned the pokémon that I brought with me through the portal, Totodile and Gible here." Ash smiled. Totodile immediately started dancing earning Cynthia's immediate 'Aww' in response. The pokémon quickly seeing that it had the advantage of the current situation, jumped towards Cynthia who caught it with open arms, smiling as she held it in her hands.

"A real softy this one." She giggled as it cheered from its arms. She looked down at the small Gible who was starting at her, "I have a Garchomp if you want to play a little?" She asked.

The pokémon immediately nodded. Instead of releasing the one pokémon she let out all of them, deciding that they could all use some time to stretch. Out from the pokeball's came the Garchomp, a Gastrodon, a Glaceon – who Pikachu immediately started playing with – a Lucario, a Milotic and a Spiritomb.

Totodile immediately leaped from Cynthia's arm, much to her disappointment, and went off with Milotic who seemed to enjoy the small pokémon's dancing.

Garchomp immediately glared at the small dragon, who in return glared back. The two continue for a while, as if playing the 'No Blinking' game. Suddenly Gible broke into a smile and jumped onto the larger Garchomps shoulder as the two made off into the forest.

Brock let out a frustrated sigh, "Well no use complaining, I guess I will start breakfast." Almost all the pokémon, including Ash cheered. Brock called out his Onyx and went off to start making food.

"So were there any other gifts?" Cynthia asked curiously. Ash smiled and revealed all his pokémon, including his two new ones. Cynthia gasped when she felt a ting of fear appear within her. Darkrai glared in her direction and made off to the side of Ash. Suicune immediately ran to Ash's side as well. Spearow flew off to find Pikachu.

"_**Why did you call us out?"**_Darkrai's deep voice said in everyone's head. At least it looked like it appeared in the others head as there eyes widened in surprise.

"For you too meet our allies." Ash said immediately. "an for a stretching break." he ended lamely.

"_**Fine." **_Came Darkrai's only reply as he made off deeper into the forest. Suicune nodded it's head and stretched out its front two paws, then made its way to the other pokémon.

"He gave you two legends!?" Cynthia asked in awe. Seeing legendary pokémon were a rare occurrence but Ash seemed to be unfazed by most of it. "Aren't you thrilled about having a legendary pokémon on your team?"

"I am always thrilled to have a family member add to my team." Ash smiled warmly, "Legendary or not, it does not matter to me."

Cynthia smiled thoughtfully, she decided to change the subject. "So this is what you looked like before you came through time?"

Ash smiled, "Yeah, though when I first came through was defiantly a lot more beaten up." He moved his hand to the helm of his shirt lifting it up slightly. He stared at the spot for a moment, "It looks like I am missing a few scars as well."

"Well that's not bad, right?" Cynthia said smiling.

"No, not at all." Ash said. The two smiled and watched as the pokémon played around with each other.

"Hey you two! Foods ready." Brock called out, sitting at a picnic table that appeared out of no where. The two immediately sat themselves, ready to stuff there empty bellies. Almost all the pokémon came around them, as Brock set down there own pokémon food.

Cynthia took the first bite in and immediately closed her eyes letting the flavors of the meal envelope her taste buds. "This is delicious Brock!" She called out to him.

"Thank you!" Brock said, starting to dig in to his food. He looked at Ash from the corner of his eye's who was stuffing his face with the food. "So, did Arceus tell you anything else."

Ash gulped down what he was eating and looked at the desk, a thoughtful expression on his face. "He said that we need to build an army."

The two stopped eating and looked at Ash, waiting for him to continue.

"He didn't tell me how to do it, other than it was up to me to do it." Ash sighed.

"Well, where do we go from here?" Brock asked.

"Actually, before we decide that." Ash said as he looked at Cynthia, "Arceus said that you knew what Leon was after." Brock immediately looked at Cynthia in surprise.

Cynthia let out a small sigh. "I could be wrong, but I found these ruins that he was guarding, In the Sinnoh Region – Me, my family, and a few close friends went to go find out what he was doing at the ruins." Her eye started to water as she spoke.

"Are you okay, Cynthia?" Ash asked softly as she stopped speaking. He could tell that the experience was hard on her.

She nodded, raising her arm up to wipe the threatening tears away, "I think he may be after some sort of weapon that can control any pokémon."

Ash and Brock let out a small gasp of surprise. They knew that Leon was after something powerful, but to control any pokémon? No one should have that kind of power.

"Do the caverns say where it is?" Brock asked.

"I didn't get to far into it, but it did say that Arceus hid it from the man somewhere in the world."

Ash gritted his teeth. Of course the pokémon would know where it is hidden, yet not mention it to Ash. The pokémon seemed not to care for the world at all.

They all remained silent, each one of them in there own thoughts.

"So should we try finding this weapon before, Lyon?" Cynthia broke the silence.

Brock shook his head, "Arceus would have told Ash to do that if the man was near finding it for himself."

"Brock's right, though I don't like the pokémon, it wouldn't purposely lead us astray." Ash said. "I think we should build this army it wants us to make, though I do not have the slightest idea on how."

"Then, I think we should still go to the Champion." Cynthia said thoughtfully, earning a look from the two boys. "If we could recruit Lance, with him come the Elite Four."

"Not only that," Brock continued, "Lance has fame on his side. If he joins a group, there will sure to be other trainers who will follow him."

Ash nodded, "Maybe this is a reason why Arceus gave me my body back, no one would listen to a ten year old kid, no matter how strong he may be." The two nodded in agreement, "Well what if Lance doesn't join?"

Everyone was quiet. They sat there, all of them thinking of what they would do if the champion declined the invitation.

"There's no point in thinking it over now," Brock decided. "The league is still a month away and the only thing we can do for now is collect the badges and go from there. If he decides not to join, we will figure out our next plan from there."

"Alright!" Ash cheered. "Never did I think that I would be going on this adventure again."

"Wait up Ash," Brock said. "What are we doing out here in the first place?"

"Yeah! What are we doing out here? I got caught up in the moment and forgot to even ask!" Cynthia said, as she continued to chew down on her food.

"Oh yeah, when I returned back the pokémon Center was on fire." Ash said.

"WHAT!" Both of them shouted for the second time that morning.

"Yeah, Mewtwo teleported all of us out though." The two stared at him in shock.

"Who's Mewtwo?" Cynthia asked.

"It's long story," Ash mumbled, "He's another legendary pokémon."

"Are legendary pokémon attracted to you or something?" Cynthia exclaimed. Causing Brock to chuckle deeply.

"You have no idea." He said. "Anyway, who do you think started the fire Ash?"

"Leon," Ash said immediately, "He's probably going to be on our tails the entire time now." The man was persistent.

"Your probably right about that," Brock said, bringing his hand to his chin to think. "I think we should stay for a while. Wait until whoever sent goes away." The two nodded in agreement.

"Where is everyone else that was in the pokémon center?" Cynthia murmured, immediately knowing the answer when Ash frowned and looked straight at the ground.

"Well, I guess its time for some training!" Ash called out, " I need to blow off some steam. Cynthia, you going to join?" She nodded. Ash grinned widely and looked over to Brock who immediately shook his head, knowing how hard Ash pushes his pokémon. Cynthia was in for treat.

* * *

Cynthia stumbled through the foliage as she tiredly made her way back to where Brock, who was currently laughing loudly, was sitting on one of the many fallen logs. She fell to her knees and then laid down on her stomach, her breaths still coming out in short burst.

"Is that man sadistic?" She moaned to the ground.

This caused Brock to go another torrent of laughter, making her moan out even louder. "You know, the first time you trained with him, well you as in the you from the past, you did almost exactly the same thing, you even asked the same question."

Cynthia looked up at him tiredly from the ground, "Who are you two anyway?" She had never gotten to ask the two of them who they were after she found out that she was a champion.

Brock smiled, "Well I am a pokémon Breeder." He answered.

"Oh really? Could you check up on my pokémon after they finish this training? I fear they may kill themselves." Cynthia asked, looking back at Ash. They seemed to move on the next step of his training, witch consisted of them testing moves out on nearby trees.

Brock laughed, "Yeah sure no problem, I have already checked on them before and given them some necessary vitamins and minerals when we ate breakfast."

"Really? I didn't know that, thank you!" Cynthia smiled.

"No problem, I do it for Ash all the time. Anyway if you think that part of his bad, wait until later. You quit during the warm-up."

"What!" Cynthia shouted. "We have been doing nothing but sprinting for the past few hours though!"

Brock just nodded. So she continued, "Alright so your a pokémon Breeder, who is Ash?"

Brock smiled, "Ash is the Champion of Kanto." Cynthia looked at him shock, "Not only that, there's also the title that he took from you."

"What title?" Cynthia asked confused, "I thought I had my title of being champion."

"Ah, but you were also known as the Champion of Champions, at least until you lost to Ash after he became Champion." Brock said. "It's sort of a ritual you see, When there is a new champion, they go face each of the other champions, facing the strongest one last. Well, Ash manage to do that, and that is where the two of you became even closer friends."

"So I lost to Ash?" She mumbled to herself. "Well if I ever become champion again, I won't lose to anyone!" She said smiling proudly, until she saw Brock frown. "What?"

He let out a sigh, "it's nothing, Ash would be able to explain it better to you. Ask him when you get the chance." At the mention of Ash's name the two returned to watch the training.

"You said that we became even closer friends? So does that mean we were friends before he became Champion?" She asked.

"Yeah, we first met you on Ash's journey." Brock started. "It's strange being on a journey with Ash. He doesn't only attract Legendary pokémon, but also People and danger as well."

"What do you mean?" She asked as she watched Ash trying to control his Charmeleon from attacking the small Totodile who was dancing about.

"Well, we met almost every single champion and most of the elites of each region on Ash's journey. We always seemed to be in the right place at the right time. Then we would always run into trouble with gang members such as Team Rocket, or Galactic."

Cynthia looked at Brock, "Was Galactic bad?" She asked curiously. Team Galactic had been destroyed before it even began in her Timeline.

"I would prefer the whole of Team Galactic over that Leon alone." Brock said seriously. He didn't look like he wanted to continue with the conversation, so she looked back over to Ash. What she saw made her eye's widen in surprise.

Ash was fighting with the pokémon. Literally, going up against each one at a time with nothing but his fist. She watched as the man ducked under the sharp claw from Garchomp. He immediately retaliated punching the scaly gut with his fist. The punch didn't really seem to cause the dragon much pain as it completely ignored the punches and spun around, its tail smashing into Ash's side sending him rolling into the grass.

Cynthia let out a small gasp and quickly stood up to help him, but stopped when she heard his laughter carry over to them. "That was great move Garchomp! You are really well trained." He said rubbing the sore spot. Her Lucario stood up and looked like it was smiling. It immediately walked in front of Ash gave its battle stance. Ash and Lucario immediately started to fight against each other.

Cynthia smiled, she knew how much her Lucario loved hand to hand combat. Ash wasn't bad, especially if he was keeping up with her Lucario, though he seemed more on the defensive rather than offense. Though watching how they trained did bring up a question.

"Why does Ash push himself so much?" Cynthia asked. Normally Trainers only trained there pokémon, not necessarily there own body. Ash seemed to care about his own training almost as much as that of his pokémon's.

"Honestly, at first no one knew why." Brock said softly. "They didn't see the point in it, even our friends that we traveled with did not. Even I didn't" He said the last part barely audible.

"Well I guess it works, he does become champion, right?" Cynthia said giving the man a small smile.

"Yeah that's true, and the bond that he gained with his pokémon defiantly strengthen when he pushed himself just as hard as he pushed them, but it wasn't until Leon showed up that the real benefits of his training came into play." He said. "You see, Leon changed the rules of the game. The battles weren't just against pokémon, but he turned it into a battlefield." Brock stopped and watched Ash continue his fight with Lucario, he looked like he was having the time of his life.

"You see when we first tried to stop Leon, most of the trainers on his side of the battle knew what to expect and were prepared for it. The only one that was ready for the fight on our side was Ash. We lost the fight horribly, men and women ran from the fight as soon as they got hurt. Some of them even lost body parts. It was brutal, but Ash continued to push forward. His training gave him the skills he needed to command his pokémon, all the while fighting his own battles. Eventually we had to retreat. Since then everyone followed Ash's regiment, even then we could not stop the man.

"When the time comes to fight with Leon, do not expect a normal battle. Be prepared to fight against the man for you life. Talk to Ash about it if you want to hear more. He knows a lot more about the battles than anyone else. Just know that we are going to have follow that same regiment as well, if we want to stand a chance against this man." He said in such seriousness that it betrayed the fact that he looked like he was just a young kid.

Brock got up and walked away. He laid down inside his sleeping bag, probably in deep thought about the past. Cynthia sat there watching Ash. The man seemed to have gone through so much, but still he smiled whenever he could. Watching him fight was pretty amazing.

He was still locked in combat with her Lucario. The two at the moment were staring each other down, trying to predict what the other was going to do first. Suddenly Lucario kicked high aiming for Ash's face. The man brought both of his arms up as if to block the kick, but instead of blocking he caught it. He grunted a little but then gave the pokémon a small grin before flipping it forward, causing Lucario to tip backwards.

The agile pokémon was faster though and managed to catch the ground with it's arm, twisting it's body so that it's legs would circle around and catch Ash's feet. With honed reflexes the man was barely able to jump over the foot. He landed back on one foot, bringing his other down in attempt to hit Lucario on top of the head, but the strafed to right. His foot continued forward until it hit ground, knocking up a small amount of dirt into the air.

He decided to keep on the offensive, throwing jabs immediately afterward. He had Lucario on the run, making him take a step back for each one he took forward. Cynthia could see what he was planning from her vantage point. He was forcefully trying to push Lucario towards a nearby tree. As soon as the pokémon was a step away from the giant oak, using its aura abilities to predict where the tree was, it spun out of the way at the last second, Ash's fist narrowly missing the pokémon's snout. His fist continue until it landed against the hard tree making him cringe in pain.

Cynthia herself cringed when she saw the small amount blood leaking from the fist. Lucario pressed on the advantage, immediately sending a punch into the mans gut, followed quickly by a kick to the same place sending the man sprawling to the ground.

Ash laid groggily on the floor for a minute, as if trying to figure out what exactly happened. He then let out a large childish laugh. "You fight well, Lucario!" The man said still laughing

Cynthia smiled, she could listen to that childish laughter all day.

* * *

There was a knock at the door. "Come in." The man said annoyed by the interruption.

The three commanders walked into the room. Each one held a small smug look upon there face. The kind that you get when you know you were about to be rewarded.

Leon looked at the three, "Well?"

Saturn walked up to the front of the other two. "We did as you asked, when we landed at Vermilion we saw Cynthia. She was with the kid and another tanned guy. They were staying the night at the pokémon center." The man let out a small laugh. "So we burned then center to the ground, we watched to make sure no one got out."

"So," the man started, "Show me the bodies."

The man opened his mouth but nothing came out. He looked at the man and felt a twinge of fear run down his spine. Looking down to the floor he said, "We didn't recover the bodies."

"Then they are not dead, go back, and get the bodies." The man said as if the news wasn't new.

"You want us to go all the way back to Kanto!?" Mars said from the side, causing Leon's steel gaze go over to her.

"I won't repeat myself."

"NO!" Jupiter shouted from her side. "You keep ordering us around, telling us to do thing, but in return you never even tell us what your plan is!" She shouted, the other two immediately found the ground very interesting. "I am done following you!"

Leon smile, his gaze turned to her, making her avert her eyes. "Do you two agree with what she is saying?" He asked his gaze still trained on her. Not hearing a reply he continued, "Good, you two go on back to Kanto."

The two left the room immediately shutting the door behind them, leaving Jupiter and Leon behind. Leon stared at the girl for a while before he sighed. As soon as he stood up, the girl panicked and ran to the door. Of course, the door didn't budge, as it was locked from the opposite side.

"I can't believe you actually tried that." Leon laughed, already right behind her.

"A-… At least t-tell me what it is you're planning," the woman shuddered out, her eyes watering in fear.

Leon laughed. "I'm sorry, but I don't reveal anything to corpses."

* * *

"Hey, kid… Kid! Wake up!"

A few shoves on the shoulder finally brought the young man out of his half-sleeping state. He rubbed his eyes and was glad to find nothing had changed from when he had fallen asleep a while ago. He was still in the passenger seat of the bearded man's truck.

His pokémon woke from its own nap in his lap. The rattata yawned and stretched. Its owner stroked its back, drawing a pleased squeak.

"We're almost there now. It's just up ahead."

The young man looked out the side window, seeing that the forests had now thickened. Earlier, there weren't many trees by the road to speak of, but now the scenery was entirely covered in green. The trees stood taller than the large truck and stretched so far back you couldn't see an end to the jungle.

"You sure you'll be okay, bud? We're literally in the middle of nowhere, and you just want me to leave you out here?"

The young man rolled his shoulders. Nodding to the driver, he checked his pockets. Nothing was out of place. He was not armed to the teeth, but, covering his dark clothing, his person was covered in numerous belts and pockets, bulgingly filled with whatever he deemed as necessities for this trip.

"Alright," the driver conceded. He turned the wheel and slowly came to a stop.

The young man opened the door, grabbed the backpack that was sitting by his feet and stepped out to the edge of the truck. Before getting off however, he reached into his pack, pulled something out and fiddled with it.

The driver could not see what he was doing, but before long, a generous wad of cash was being handed to him. It surprised the driver.

"No, kid, I couldn't. You might've-"

"Take it. You'd have more use for it than me," the young man insisted, his voice gruff but sure.

Tentatively, the driver took the money. As soon as he did, his passenger turned and hopped down to the ground, his rattata clinging to his shoulder, landing on some twigs and sticks – just a few of what he was soon to be traversing over.

Standing before him, two large stone supports held up a faded wooden sign, barely legible from its age.

"Good luck, Paul. Hope you find what you're looking for," said the bearded man as his parting words.

The young man, Paul, gave a half-salute in farewell. He closed the door and the driver was off down the road.

Paul turned around, taking in the vast environment he was about to enter. He looked around, not noticing any wildlife in his immediate area. He turned to the rattata on his shoulder and nodded.

The rattata nodded back, jumped off his shoulder and scampered away into the forest. He quickly lost sight of the pokémon.

Walking up to the faded sign, he read as much as he could from the near-unreadable words.

[…_uins_… _forest_…]

'_Not much of an attraction anymore, huh?_' he thought. Considering that fact, he could've been pretty much anywhere on the planet. He pulled out his cellphone. The smallest reception bar was blinking on and off. "Tch," he scoffed. The time was ten forty AM. '_Plenty of time._' To save battery, he turned the phone off and, instead of pocketing it, put it in his bag.

After a sigh, Paul stretched his legs and shook his body awake. With his blood pumping and effects secure, he began his trek.

It was long and arduous, but it was nothing compared to what he could really handle. Sweat had started developing, but only after he had walked for a near half-hour – a testament to his endurance.

He was now in the thick of the jungle. The trees stood so tall and their branches meshed together above-head so much, the area he was walking through looked incredibly darkened compared to anywhere else you could be under a midday sun. The trees croaked, the branches rustled in the winds, and the calls of some wildlife could be heard echoing through the large, dark green expanse. Nothing out of the ordinary had made its presence known yet.

The climate was more forgiving than most forests – no fogs or overly-hot temperatures had yet to affect Paul. Luckily, he had taken the precaution of packing and dressing very lightly. The thickness of his pockets was largely contributed to by several items – six of those being pokéballs. But right now, he was reaching into his pocket to pull out a small book as he continued walking.

Opening to the last page he bookmarked, he re-read the notes written a while ago. He had definitely stopped at the right location and began walking in the correct direction. Double-checking the distance noted in the book, he sighed unhappily. He had just made it to the estimated half-way point. Another half-hour and he should be close.

Just as he put the book back into his pocket, he heard something suddenly move from up ahead.

Reaching into another pocket swiftly, he armed himself with a sheathed hunting knife. The other creature being a threat or not determined whether Paul would unsheathe the weapon.

It turned out to be a threat – a threat worth an unsettled growl from Paul.

The wild pinsir showed itself, unaware or possibly unafraid of the dangerous weapon the human before it held. Wherever Paul was walking toward, this pinsir wanted him to take no step further. Either that, or it was just angered by Paul's presence altogether. Whatever the case, he had already unsheathed a part of his blade, ready to swing it out at a moment's notice. The pinsir hissed as menacingly as it could.

But before either could make a move for the other, the pinsir's eyes widened. It was suddenly contorted in the air, its limbs being bent behind its back as it cried out in pain, and sent flying off into a large tree trunk. The resounding thud left the bug-type pokémon unconscious indefinitely.

Paul calmed his nerves, put his knife away and continued his hike, giving a quick glance to the downed pinsir before moving on.

Another half-hour later and, as Paul had predicted, he was on the right track. The sheer depth and darkness of the jungle was now even deeper and darker. With sounds of wildlife now echoing from far behind Paul, it was obvious that wherever he was walking was not inhabited.

He stopped to look down a small cliff. From the looks of it, Paul guessed it to be at least a thirty to forty-foot drop. Not a comfortable enough plunge for his liking. A long, sturdy rope was in his backpack, but if he could make it down without its use, he would prefer to. Surveying his surroundings, he weighed his options.

Sharply hitting his ear, he heard the sound of a couple of rocks dropping to his right. He looked up into the tree at the moving branches, then down to where the rocks were. Near them, a noticeable rock formation looked curiously solid and went down long enough that he could drop from its end. A stone ladder. What luck.

Feeling the ground under his feet not give way as he neared the edge of the crag, he decided to go for it. He lowered himself, reached one foot out and gave it his weight. It didn't break. One hand and foot after the other, he lowered himself down, meeting no problems in his descent.

As he climbed down, he noticed something strange. Each edge he clung on to was evenly spaced from the last. That's when he noticed something odd about the cliff face beside him. Reaching out to spread a few vines, he stifled a gasp at what he had discovered.

His head shot all around him, before he quickened his pace down the rock surface. His hastiness was stopped altogether by one of his feet hitting an edge too hard, collapsing it. Quickly turning around, his feet landed on the near-bottom of the rock formation, where he leapt off and finally met the ground in a harsh recoil roll.

He stiffened as he stood back up, rubbing his back in slight pain. He shrugged it off, because he had at last found his objective.

"Finally." He raised his hand and waved it slowly up and down.

This signaled a spearow to come gliding out of the trees and onto his shoulder. The two took in the sight before them. They both concluded that this was no ordinary cliff face.

"Keep guard while I investigate."

The spearow leapt off his shoulder and hopped around on the ground, looking as docile as possible, but keeping its senses sharp.

Pulling out his book, Paul scribbled down a few words, and checked the time on his phone as well. Once he was done, he put them away and began his investigation.

Moving foliage out of the way, he inspected the enormous rocky wall. Some spots weren't notable, but other parts showed signs of carving. It definitely wasn't of the same substance as the land around him. These points lead to one fact – this supposed 'cliff' was not natural, but built.

Moments after he had confirmed this fact, he came across a particularly straight indent in the wall. Pulling out his knife, he cut every vine needed. A few slices later, he found himself in front of what appeared to be an entrance. It was short and the edges had worn out, but it definitely looked like an entrance.

He put his ear next to the parting down the middle of the 'door'. Paul couldn't help but grin when he felt a breeze.

Looking beside the door, he found a hole with what seemed to be a hardwood handle of some sort. He tried twisting, turning and pushing the handle in but none of those worked. Resorting to try pulling it out, he found some give. Mustering all his strength and straining in the act, he pulled the lever back as far as possible. He let go of the handle, which slowly pushed itself back in place.

There was a dull scraping sound coming from inside the wall, and the door started to slide open. Through all his effort, he had gotten half of the door to open by several inches. He grimaced at the tight fit, but, as he soon found out, the space made would be enough. A few strenuous pushes later and he was inside whatever this cliff was.

The dim jungle light did not do much for visibility inside the pitch-black cavity, so, deciding against wasting one of his pokémon's energy for light, he pulled out a tube from his pack. Bending it, he heard a crack and the yellow glow stick lit up the cavern.

While the entrance he came through was small, he found that the cave he was in was very wide. The side walls were now visible, as well as the apparatus the door was connected to which involved a series of very old ropes and counterweights. However, the light of his glow stick could not come close to a wall opposite the entrance at all. It was absolute darkness as far as his eyes could, or could _not_, see.

A few chirps came from behind him. Paul turned to see the spearow looking up at him through the opening. He thought for a moment. Thinking of every possible consequence he could, he made a decision.

"No. You stay here. If I'm not back by nightfall, do what you want."

That didn't leave a good taste in his mouth, and he saw that this did not appease the spearow. Nevertheless, the pokémon nodded. It was loyal enough to believe that Paul knew what he was doing.

With a flash of pink around its body, the spearow turned into a rattata and scurried off.

Paul watched as it left, hoping deep down that it would be okay.

He turned back to stare down into the dark void and brace himself for the next part of his quest.

"You'd better be in here, Celebi." His fist tightened by his side. "Leon has to pay."

* * *

**Whoooo! I got some chills reading Paul's part! Now, to explain. Me and Nauran are both writing this story now, well, he is doing Paul's part! As you can see, he is far better at writing than myself.**

**Also, the story behind the two legends I will delve into at a later time. I will, however tell you right now, that the two will not be overpowered. In terms of power right now, they are the strongest on Ash's team, but in the end they will be near the same power as all of his other Pokemon.**

**My goal is 100 Reviews! I need you all's help! Review! :)**

**Thanks again for reading!**

**~Ohaeder**


	5. Mother

**Alright! Next chapter!**

**Huge thanks to Nauran as always for being a HUGE help in making this story enjoyable to read.**

**Enjoy!**

**(11,806 Words)**

* * *

"We are wasting time."

"No, we are not. This is important. Besides, there is no need to rush."

"I'm not saying that it's not important, but there are more pressing matters."

As they continued their trek through the grassy plains, Ash let out a sigh and looked over to Brock who was, very intelligently, avoiding the argument. Pikachu's silence from Ash's shoulder signified his own status in the argument – uninvolved.

"A little help here, Brock?"

"Nope, I'm staying out of this," he replied immediately. Cynthia, who stood on the opposite side of Ash, smiled triumphantly. "Though I do agree, we aren't in any rush."

Cynthia's smile dropped, replaced with a frown.

"Ha!" Ash yelled bringing his hand into the air. He then slowly retracted it, deciding to ease the tension instead of piling it on. Pikachu sighed in contempt of his partner's antics, then Ash sighed. "Don't worry, Cynthia. We'll make it to the tournament in time."

Cynthia let out a small groan. "Fine. So, where are we going after we go to Pallet Town?"

Ash had decided that returning to Pallet Town and telling his mother and Professor Oak would be for the best. Well, the main reason was to talk to Professor Oak about his pokémon, not to mention the fact that his pokédex that he acquired from him was registered to a ten year old boy – one that no longer existed, seeing as how Ash took a leap in years of age.

"After Pallet, I say we take one of the small ferries to Cinnabar Island where the fire gym is located," Ash explained.

"I didn't know that Pallet Town had ferries to Cinnabar," Brock said.

"Well, it's actually our neighbor's family business. They ferry people over to Cinnabar for a low cost. Cinnabar is a popular vacation spot for the people of Pallet Town and the journey there takes less than a day by boat. I've never ridden one to the island, but sometimes, when I was little, they would let me go fishing with them on their boat."

Ash smiled as he thought back to his childhood, and unconsciously pet Pikachu. He wondered if Leon had done anything that could have possibly changed his memories. Though anything he could remember seemed the same as before, so that must have meant he hadn't. Now that Ash thought about it, Leon hadn't done much of anything to change Kanto. It all seemed the same, other than the fact that there were new faces here, such as Cynthia.

"Cynthia, how is it in Sinnoh?" Ash asked out of the blue. Seeing the confused look she, as well as Pikachu and Brock, was giving him, he clarified. "I mean, what is it like there now?" Ash fell silent as he tried to determine how to ask the question any better.

Cynthia giggled. "You mean, how is it now after Leon took control?" Seeing Ash nod, she continued. "Well, I guess you could say it's almost the same as it was before he took over."

"What do you mean?" Brock asked.

"Well, it's not like he has taken over every town and made some sort of military post there. He did hunt down trainers that were making names for themselves – trying to convince some to see his side. The others… I'm not sure what happened to them," she said, saddened. "I was one of the trainers he was after, and I barely escaped his pursuit a few times."

Ash groaned inwardly as he mentally thanked Arceus for its protection over Cynthia.

Cynthia began to slow down in her walk, prompting Ash and Brock to lose pace with her.

"No one knows what happened to the champion either, or his elites. They all but vanished into thin air. Though it's hard to tell, Leon's gang members are everywhere in Sinnoh, making it almost impossible to travel without your name getting to his ears." Cynthia came to a stop. "Not much has changed, but people can _feel _the change… They no longer let their children go out and play, or dare speak of private matters in public in the fears that they may say something that would get Leon's attention. They live in passive fear… Fear of the unknown… Fear that they could be taken away from their families and friends, without warning… It's no way… _no way to live_…"

Her eyes began to water, so she quickly brought up her arm up to rub the oncoming tears away. She resisted the urge to let out an audible sob. She was stronger than that.

Ash looked over to Brock who was frowning at the ground, as was Pikachu. Ash let out a sigh.

"I'm sorry, Cynthia," he said, looking down as well. His hands were clenched in frustration. Cynthia looked over to him confusedly, but didn't say anything.

The three eventually continued their walk, but in silence, making their way through the open fields that lay before Pallet Town.

The sun was high in the sky by the time they first caught sight of the small town. Small farms surrounded the settlement. From where they were standing, they could see small figures moving about, most likely people harvesting whatever their crops. Further behind the farms lay a cluster of small buildings, most made out of a dark brown wood. There was one building that stood out the most – it stood on top of a grassy hill, a dirt path leading up to it. The building itself was larger than any of the others, but not by too much.

Overall, to Cynthia, the town wasn't the most impressive, but looking to her right, she could see the glee on Ash and Pikachu's faces. Ash's hometown rejuvenated him, and his smile rejuvenated Cynthia and Brock.

"Alright guys, let's get going!" Ash cheered and broke into a sprint, making Pikachu cling onto his shoulder.

"Hey! Wait up, Ash!" Cynthia called out from behind him, immediately beginning to chase after the boy.

Brock let out an exasperated sigh and shook his head. "At least I know where they're going." He smiled to himself and continued walking toward Ash's house.

It took only a few minutes of running to finally come to the small house near the outskirts of the town. Ash arrived first, with Cynthia arriving about a minute or two later. Brock was completely out of sight, hidden behind one of the small hills they had to run over, walking at a comfortable pace of his own.

Ash fumbled for the single key he had and unlocked the door. "Mom! I'm home!" Ash yelled as he walked in, waving his hand to Cynthia to follow him in.

Delia, Ash's mother, walked into the room from what Ash remembered was the kitchen. A large smile was on her face, but it quickly turned into a frown as soon as she saw him. The excitement that was in her eyes was replaced with shock.

"Who are you? And what are you doing in my house?" she yelled, pointing her finger at Ash, as her gaze moved between him and Cynthia.

"Mom, wha-"

"Stop calling me 'Mom'!" she interrupted. "You aren't my son!"

Ash grimaced and looked down at the floor. Pikachu's ears drooped as soon as he realized the situation he and his partner were in. Looking down at his own body, Ash's eyes widened in realization. "I-It's me, Ash!" He looked back up and grinned sheepishly.

"Impossible! My little boy is only ten years old!"

"There…" he struggled, before letting go of his fist. "There's something I need to tell you, Mom," Ash began. "It really is me though, so please let me-"

"Why would I believe you?" she said, backing away from the trio slowly. Ash let out a sigh, and looked over to Cynthia, who very skillfully avoided meeting his eyes. She didn't want to be dragged into this, but it wasn't her place to intervene anyway.

"When I was eight years old…" Ash started, looking back at his mother. "Me and Gary decided to run away and become pokémon trainers early. We disappeared for an entire day, before you and Professor Oak found us trying to catch a rattata near the sign that says 'Welcome to Pallet Town'. The moment you found us, the rattata bit my arm a left a scar." Ash pointed to his arm, where a small line about two inches long could be seen on his skin. "After you got is sewn up, you made me promise that I would never leave you too early again, until I had a pokémon for myself to protect me." Ash smiled fondly at the memory, giving Pikachu a soft pet on the head. "I kept that promise, and I'm glad I did. It's all thanks to how much you looked after me… A son can never repay a mother enough… All they can do is live on for them."

"…A-Ash?" Delia asked, tears starting to form in her eyes. "B-But… You left only a week and a half ago! Ash Ketchum, how is it that you got in this much trouble within two weeks of beginning your adventure?" she questioned angrily, but her son could see the worry behind her anger.

Ash couldn't help but laugh, putting his hands up in defense. "It isn't my fault that trouble seems to follow me!"

"It's true," Cynthia spoke up. "I have only been with him for a week, and already I have woken up in the middle of the forest, when I had fallen asleep in a comfy bed."

Delia looked over to the blonde, as if realizing she was there for the first time. "And, who are you?"

"Cynthia, pleasure to meet you," she said, giving a small wave.

Delia nodded, and returned to look back at Ash. "Well, can you explain wha-"

A knock at the door cut her off from continuing.

"More friends of yours I assume, Ash?" she asked.

"It's most likely Brock, he's traveling with us," Ash said, turning around and opening the door.

Brock stood glaring at Ash for leaving him behind. Next to him stood Professor Oak, who was staring strangely at Ash.

"Come on in," Ash said, trying to avoid Brock's glaring eyes.

"Hello, Delia," Professor Oak greeted as he walked in, giving her a small friendly kiss on the cheek. "So… seems like this young man here was not lying to me after all."

Seeing the confusion on their faces, Brock spoke up. "I walked into him on the way here. After finding out he was going to Mrs. Ketchum's house, I decided to explain everything."

The old man laughed. "I was skeptical at first, but I guess that it does explain the pokémon that your pokédex registered you catching. I was going to get in contact with you Ash, and ask how you found some of these pokémon in this region, but then you started heading back this way, I decided to wait."

"Wait, how did you know I was heading back this way instead of going to the next town?" Ash asked confused.

Delia scratched the back of her head, "Well, I kinda asked Prof. Oak to put a tracker in your pokédex the day before you got your Pokémon! There was no way I was going to let my son leave without me knowing where he was at all times!" She ended confidently.

"Mom!" Ash groaned childishly, causing the others to laugh. "Alright, so I think I should explain the situation and why we are here."

"We can do that while we eat," Delia said, "I was making food for just me and Prof Oak, but I can make some more for all of you."

"I can help you make the food Mrs. Ketchum, if you don't mind." Brock asked. Seeing her nod he followed her into the kitchen. Eventually the food was all ready and set up on the dining table. As they began to eat, while Pikachu ate his own bowl of food on a chair to the side, Ash started telling the two everything that was going on, Brock filling in some of the blanks that he missed out. He told them of Leon, the man currently residing in Sinnoh, of how they return back into the past going through the portal Dialga created, and eventually of Arceus and how he gave Ash's old body back.

"I should have known that something was wrong," Delia said, "You waking up on time, even on a day as important as getting your first pokémon, is a miracle!"

"Hey! I've woken up on time on other occasions!" Ash whined.

"Oh, really? Name one."

Ash opened his mouth to speak, but stopped. Instead he opted to angrily tear at his food as the other began to laugh around him.

"Alright, alright." Professor Oak said, a small smile on his face. "Now we know what happened, why did you three come back this way instead of continuing on?"

"Well, the first reason is my Pokédex." Ash said, and Professor Oak immediately saw what he meant.

"Don't worry my boy, we can get you a new one registered for you easy enough." Ash smiled and nodded.

"Make sure you add the tracking device into it as well." Cynthia smirked from next to Ash, causing the others to laugh at Ash's expense again.

"Cynthia!" Ash whined, "I'm old enough to do without that!"

"No, I agree with Cynthia." Delia said nodding her approval, "Make sure you add it in Prof. Oak." The man nodded, sending an apologetic smile over to Ash.

"But Mom!"

"No 'buts' mister!" She said and Ash immediately knew he lost the argument. "I lost ten years of my son's life, I won't miss anymore!"

Ash nodded. The demeanor of the conversation immediately changing. Every one continued eating silently.

"So you mention that the pokédex was only one reason?" Professor Oak said after a few minutes of silence.

"Yeah, another was to see if you could allow me to carry more than six Pokémon at a time." Ash asked.

"That shouldn't be much of a problem." Professor Oak said. "I can allow you up to ten Pokémon for now, after you compete in the league, you can carry 15."

"Wait a minute," Cynthia said a small frown playing on her face, "I though that all Pokémon trainers could only have a maximum of six Pokémon on them at a time?"

"That is true." Professor Oak started, "The Pokémon league has put a limit on most trainers to only carry six Pokémon at a time, so that they would not overwhelm the trainer. The Pokémon league is relatively new, only being about fifteen years old. When they first began, trainers were allowed any number of Pokémon on them, but soon after, they discovered that many trainers did not have the ability to keep all of there Pokémon healthy. It tended to be after having more than six Pokémon on them at a time that the trainers ability to train their Pokémon successfully started to become an issue. So the Pokémon league put a cap for new trainers.

"Then there were the others who became Champions and Elites that were able successfully train a multitude of Pokémon, allowing all of there Pokémon to become stronger and faster due to them being able to constantly train with there trainer. So it was decided that six Pokémon was the cap for all trainers, unless the professor of the region that they are from deemed them capable of being able to carry more."

"So you wouldn't be able to give me permission to carry any more than six, would you?" Cynthia frowned.

"No, I would not be able to give you permission. Though I could try to get into contact with Prof. Rowan to see if he will give you permission. Though if what you say about this Leon man is true, then most likely will not be able to get in contact with him."

"You wouldn't be able to make this a special circumstance?" Brock asked, finally speaking up.

"No I would not be able to, the Pokémon league has made that impossible." Professor Oak sighed.

"I never realized how much power the Pokémon league had over everything." Ash said. He knew when he was reigning champion that he could even make laws for Kanto. He was the person that became responsible for the lives of the Kanto region.

"Yes, the Pokémon league is very powerful." Professor Oak said. "As I said, the Pokémon League is relatively new. They are still trying to find how much power a Champion should hold when it comes to political influence. Right now, there power could be said to be equivalent to a president. That's why it is so difficult to come in contact with any of them."

Ash nodded in agreement. He knew what it was like to be champion. You became known as the strongest in the region, though he knew even that wasn't true. There were people who avoided becoming champion because they didn't care for the title. Even if they were strong enough to go and defeat the champion, they decided not to. Ash finally understood why when he had become champion.

When you gain the title, people start to look at you differently. They put you on some kind of pedestal and expect you to never lose. Then they begin to treat you differently. Your once friends, begin to look at you as if they said something you didn't like you would crush them. So instead they just stopped talking to you in general. If it wasn't for Brock or the other champions, Ash probably would have gone crazy.

"Alright, let's get everything cleaned up." Delia said smiling as she started stacking the plates and moving them to the sink with Cynthia's and Brock's help. Ash quickly finished his last bite before taking his own plate to the sink. After everything was clean and put up, Professor Oak decided to say his goodbyes, and let Ash know that everything would be ready by tomorrow.

After he left, Delia pulled out an air mattress and placed it in the living room. Ash went upstairs and into his room, where Pikachu made himself comfortable on the nice, soft bed for a good rest. He decided to sit and think for a little while, before his mom walked in and sat next to him.

"So, you're going to leave tomorrow?"

Ash nodded, "Yeah we need to hurry and collect all the badges."

"Ash, I want to ask you something, and I want you to answer honestly." Delia said, Ash looked ever to her confused but nodded anyway. "Do you know where you father is?"

Ash's eyes widen, but he smiled and nodded. "I do… but I can't tell you where he is."

Delia smiled and let out a breath, "That's fine, I have a feeling it would be too dangerous for me to go wherever he is anyway. So… you met him?"

"Yeah, he was a good man, I actually trained with him for two months before I became Champion." Ash said, "Though he never wanted me to become Champion, and I understand why now."

"Wait… Why would he not want you to follow your dreams?" Delia's eyes hardened and Ash was able to catch the hint of interrogation in her words.

"It doesn't matter, he was right, when I became champion I hated it! I couldn't go out and adventure with my friends, people started treating me differently, I couldn't even go after the girl I liked all becau-" Ash immediately stopped and looked down, his cheeks becoming tinted as he realized what he just said. He refused to look up to see his mother's huge smile on her face.

"So, you liked a girl?" Her voice was full of glee, "Tell me about her!"

"No!" Ash said, shaking his head vehemently. It was strange, in the past his mother had fallen ill and died before he could tell her about this girl. He often wished for this conversation to happen, but now that it was, it seemed too embarrassing to continue.

"Ash Ketchum, you know you aren't going to get out of this, so you might as well tell me!" She said, wrapping her arm around his back.

"It doesn't matter anymore mom. It was in the past before I came back here." Ash argued, "She won't be the same person."

"You would be surprised by how little people actually change when it comes to things like this, Ash." Delia said, her eyes seemed to be staring off at something in the distance. "When I first met you father, we were ten. We became quick friends and then he left on his adventure. He didn't return for eight years, but when he did, the first thing he did was come and see me. Everyone knew who he was, he actually become famous and he was happy. He stayed here with me for several years, and gave me you. In all that time, he was still the same little boy I first met when he was ten."

Ash looked up at her, tears adorning her cheeks. He smiled and wiped them off for her. Ash was surprised that she told him that story, she never talked about his dad before.

"You know he still loves you right?" Seeing her smile and nod he continued, "When I met him we talked. Actually, the first thing we did was battle. He was the first man I actually lost to after I had begun training seriously. Even after two months I still couldn't beat him, he became my new challenge to beat. Anyway, we talked after our first battle, when he found out I was his son he was terrified. He thought that I would hate him for leaving me, for leaving us, for so long. That's why he never returned, he was terrified that we would hate him, and would rather not know we hated him rather than come back and find out."

Delia's tears continued to stream down her face, "If you see him again, let him know that I could never hate him."

Ash nodded and hugged her, "Of course, mom."

She rubbed her eyes, "Now don't think you got out of telling me who this girl is." Ash let out a irritated sigh, while his mother gained a big grin.

"She was the Champion of Sinnoh at the time." Ash started, "Our positions kept us from ever being together for long."

"Champion of Sinnoh, eh?" She smiled, "and would I have approved of this girl?"

Ash smiled warmly. "I would like to think so. Do you approve of the girl downstairs?"

Pikachu's ear perked. '_That was… the stupidest move… I've _ever_ seen him make._'

Delia's eyes widen and her smile grew wide. "I knew it!"

"What!?" Ash asked confused. He finally caught on to his own words. "Wait, no! No, you di-"

Her smile grew and she nodded, "You kept stealing glances at her when you thought no one was looking throughout dinner!" Ash looked down at the floor, his cheeks tinting red again, realizing that he had been caught. "I think I have to go talk to this girl and make sure I approve of her," Delia said, standing up to walk out the door. Before she could take more than two steps, Ash's hand wrapped around her arm.

"Please! Please, do _not_ do that!" The fear of embarrassment was evident in his voice.

"Fine," Delia huffed, but decided to torture her son some more. "At least a plus side to you growing so fast is that I can expect grandchildren sooner."

Ash choked on his own embarrassment and Delia couldn't hold in her laughter. "Mom! Get out of my room so that I can go to sleep!" He said turning her and pushing her out of the room.

"Oh, no, no, no. You're not sleeping in here. You're too big to fit in your old bed now. Brock said that he would sleep in here, while you sleep on the couch downstairs, though with Cynthia down there as well, I don't think that may be the best-"

"Mom!" Ash yelled again much to Delia's amusement. He struggled to find the words, but eventually caved in. "Fine, I'll sleep downstairs," he said, making his way out of his room, leaving his mom behind. He could hear his mother's laughter as he made his way downstairs.

As he was heading down the stairs, he met Brock who was coming up the stairs.

"You okay Ash? We heard a lot of yelling and you look red." Brock asked concerned for his friends wellbeing.

"Yeah, it's okay. Me and my mom were just having a chat, and she kind found out about… _Cynthia_," Ash said, whispering 'Cynthia' so that said person couldn't hear him.

Brock let out a small chuckle, "You can't hide anything from a mother, Ash, you should know that now." Ash nodded his agreement. "Well I am off to bed, I will see you in the morning."

"Night Brock." Ash said as he continue on his way down.

"Oh Ash," Brock said, now standing on the last step of the staircase. "Don't do anything that I wouldn't do." He said throwing a wink down at him. Ash immediately felt the blood rush to his face as he very kindly flicked his best friend off. Brock laughed and continued to the room.

Ash let out a sigh and walked into the living room. They had two couches, one was about the doubled the length of the other and sat facing the air mattress. The other couch was moved to the side of the room to make room for the air mattress sitting in the middle. The only way for him to get to the larger couch was for him to climb over the air mattress.

"If you like, I can sleep on the couch while you sleep on the air mattress." Cynthia said, though she already looked quite comfy in the middle of the mattress, her blonde hair spewing out over the mattress.

Ash smiled, "No, that's not necessary, I can sleep here on the couch." He carefully put one foot on top of the bouncy surface. Carefully he started making his way across the air mattress, almost tripping when he was stepping over Cynthia causing her to giggle. Finally on the other side, he laid down comfortably, reaching up to turn off the lamp on the desk behind of the arm of the couch.

"So, Ash, your mom seems really nice," Cynthia said, snuggling into the warmth of the blanket she had with her, letting out a content sigh. Sleeping on this air mattress was much more comfortable than the hard bunk-beds that pokémon centers usually had.

"Yeah, she's the best," Ash said, smiling

"And your dad?"

"He left when I was young. I didn't meet him until right before I became Champion."

"Why'd he leave?"

"He did something that a lot of people didn't agree with and hated him for it. He didn't want to bring back that hate with him to his family," Ash said quietly.

"Oh… I'm sorry."

"It's alright. I at least got the chance to meet him. I know it isn't fair to someone who never met their parents."

Cynthia let out a small 'humph!' and pouted. "It's not fair. You know a lot about me, but I know next to nothing about you."

Ash let out a small chuckle.

"Well, I guess I could tell you a few things about me. I like the color red, blue is probably my second favorite. Before I took my training seriously, I competed in many different leagues and actually won the Orange League and Kanto Battle Frontier. Then, when I was sixteen, I lost in the Vertress Conference, making top eight. I decided it was time to buckle down and start training all of my pokémon earnestly. So, I came back here to Pallet Town and stayed here for almost a year, doing nothing but training. I eventually took on the Indigo Conference again, coming in second place. After that, all of the tournaments I competed in I came in first, until I finally gained permission to fight the elites."

He adjusted himself to look up at the ceiling.

"Before I did that I went on another training trip, where I met my father. He's actually the strongest trainer I've ever faced. Even now, I don't think I would be able to defeat him with the knowledge I have."

Cynthia laid there quietly, absorbing in the information. Though Ash was listing out all of his achievements, he sounded humble about the whole thing, as if it didn't really matter to him. Most people would be showing off if they had ever made top eight in any competition.

"If you couldn't beat your father, then why wasn't he champion?"

"There are many people who are strong enough to take on the champions but don't. They'd rather not have the title of champion. I actually agree with their reasoning now."

Cynthia stayed quite for a moment. "Why is that?"

"It keeps you from people you love."

That hit unexpectedly hard for Cynthia.

"They don't look at you the same and you lose the freedom to travel wherever you want."

Cynthia frowned. She always had believed that being a champion was the best thing anybody could achieve in their life. Now here was a man with personal experience as a champion, telling her that it wasn't worth it.

"Tell me Cynthia, what's your dream?" Ash asked, looking down at her. She rolled on her side, her piercing gray eyes staring directly into his brown eyes.

She gave him a small smile, "I always had two dreams, one was to become champion, and the other is to explore the world as an archaeologist and perhaps find something amazing."

Ash smiled. "That sounds like fun. Maybe after all this is over, we can continue traveling with each other and find some of these adventures, huh?"

Cynthia smiled in return, "I think I'd like that."

Ash gave her a large smile. He turned over. "'Night, Cynthia."

"Goodnight, Ash."

Ash closed his eyes, immediately falling into a deep slumber. Cynthia, however, kept her eyes on the now sleeping figure as she thought about what they had just decided. Strangely enough, she felt herself yearning for it to happen. For the two of them to travel with each other, without a care in the world.

She closed her eyes and let out a small sigh. She let herself fall into the back of her mind as she dreamed of what it would be like to adventure with just her and Ash.

* * *

"Thank you, Professor!" Ash cheered as the older man gave him his knew pokédex and on it was a video that he could show to anyone that questioned why he had more than six Pokémon on him. Pikachu took a peek at the device as well.

"Now just remember, Ash, whenever you enter a gym, or go into the competition arenas, you are only allowed to have six pokémon on you." Ash and Pikachu both nodded.

The professor had already gone over this with him. The reason he was only allowed to have six pokémon when he entered those certain areas was so that he wouldn't have an unfair advantage over his opponents. The more options he had to pick from, the more unfair it was to the trainers that only had a six pokémon team.

"And I'm sorry, Cynthia, but I couldn't get in contact with Professor Rowan. The only other way that you would be able to carry more than six pokémon would be to talk to either the Champion or Mr. Goodshow himself."

Cynthia frowned but nodded. "That's okay. Thank you for trying."

"I've just spoken with John for you all, and he's ready to ferry you three over to Cinnabar," Delia said, coming up from behind them.

"I guess we should get going," Ash smiled, and walked up to his mom to give her a tight hug. "I will try to be back to visit soon."

"Don't worry about me, Ash. I'll be fine." Ash smiled and let go. Delia immediately moved over to Brock and gave him a hug as well. She moved over to Cynthia and hugged her too. "You and I didn't have very long to talk, so next time you come, we will."

Cynthia smiled and nodded. "That'd be nice. Thank you for letting us stay the night."

Delia nodded, and they all said their goodbyes to Professor Oak before leaving. It only took a few minutes to reach John's house near the sea. There was a man on a small house boat, moving things about. He looked up from his work and smiled when he saw the three of them approaching him.

"You three must be the ones Delia told me about." Seeing the three nod, he waved them onward. "Then come on aboard. Delia's already paid for you."

"Thank you, John," Ash said as he climbed onto the ship. Pikachu hopped on and took a seat on one of the seats in the back. Ash turned around and gave Cynthia a hand to help her onto ship. She gave him a small smile, and went across the boat and sat on one of the seats next to Pikachu, giving him a pet on the back.

When Ash turned back around he looked down to see Brock holding his hand up expectantly, a small smile playing on his face. Instead of helping him up, Ash stuck out his tongue childishly before going to go sit next to Cynthia. As he sat down, he could hear Brock chuckle.

When the three were seated and ready, John smiled. "Alright, you three. Next stop… Cinnabar Island!"

* * *

"Wake up, son. We're here now."

Opening his eyes was all it took to send the young man into agonizing blindness as he was woken up by a person's voice above the washes of the sound of small waves.

He tightly shut his eyes from the brightness of the day. He grunted in frustration and patted his hand all around him as he was sitting back. His hand finally came into contact with a baseball cap and he placed it back on his head. He squinted and looked down to see a spearow, which had pushed the cap into the young man's reach.

He gave the tiny bird pokémon a grateful stroke through its feathers as his eyes re-adjusted to the light. It was a painful reminder, but at least he was reminded of where he was and where he was going. He secured the hat back on his head.

This was Alto Mare, the renowned 'City of Water'. The young man and his pokémon sat back in the gondola, floating on the water while being rowed by an older gentleman. Despite having little appreciation for sightseeing, he couldn't help but feel a massive culture shock. The roads were practically all rivers, the people were like islanders even though there were no sandy beaches to speak of on this island, and the buildings were like none he had ever seen before. At the very least, he could see how this place could be considered beautiful.

The man stopped the gondola by a dock, where the boy grabbed his backpack and carefully exited the long rowboat. The spearow flapped up onto his shoulder.

"Thank you for the lift, sir." The young man bowed his head.

"Don't sweat it, Paul. Enjoy your time in Alto Mare!" he said, turning his boat and rowing away down the river.

He then looked at the perched pokémon. "Take a look around. Hopefully this doesn't drag on," Paul requested of the flying-type. It nodded, and the spearow took to the skies, leaving its partner to his own devices.

Just a stone's throw away was Paul's destination – Alto Mare Museum. It looked more like a palace than a museum, built obscenely large and appearing as if the architects put the most effort into this building in particular. Housing Alto Mare's legacy and other priceless relics of history, it made sense for the structure to be centered in Alto Mare's main plaza.

As Paul walked toward the museum, he tilted his hat's brim and glanced over to two very tall pillars. Both looked old but sturdy, and were topped with two statues of what Paul guessed to be pokémon. No differences could be seen between the two figures aside from one looking slightly larger than the other. To have statues made in these pokémon's visages must have meant that they were special to the town. Perhaps they were a traditionally worshipped duo, or they might be divine guardians that live to this day.

Normally Paul would take no interest in statues and would-be pokémon legends, but, for the sake of his mission… he had to believe.

He had to believe in higher powers, untapped capabilities possessed by pokémon or mythical objects. It may have sounded farfetched to the average human, but the line of work Paul has involved himself in has given him a rare insight into pokémon mythos, as well as believable, accountable chronicles of strange and divine abilities used by several unique pokémon in the world. His whole mission depended on these possibilities.

And in a matter of moments, he would be heavily reminded of this.

The closer he got to the building, the larger it seemed to get. He made it to the stone steps and walked up, noting the diverse range of designs of the pillars, the ground, walls and so on. It really was an architectural marvel. There were no doors to walk through, but there was a stone divider inside, in front of the doorway, which the visitors would walk around.

Paul had entered the building and, for such a grand tourist spot, he noticed that there were a sparse number of people inside – mostly and appropriately tourists, seeing as how their clothes, bags and all-around atmosphere blatantly indicated so.

And why should there be more people in here? With such an eyesore of a statue placed in the very middle of the main section of the museum, Paul was surprised people weren't driven away by how abstract and menacing the large structure looked. In fact, it looked more like a doomsday device from a TV show or movie than anything Paul would think could be considered 'artistic'.

Amongst the tourists and town citizens, two figures stood out to Paul. Two men stood over an ancient pokémon fossil embedded in the museum ground. Although they weren't in the usual clothes Paul had seen them constantly wear in the past, their stature and aura certainly gave it away. One was without his trademark mining helmet, and the other was with his ever-present stylized blue fedora, but their civilian clothing was appropriate for the weather of Alto Mare all the same.

The two were talking to another person who soon struck Paul's memory – a young female in a green beret holding an orange satchel. Out of the trio of familiar faces, he was mostly displeased by hers. He deemed her, for lack of a more fitting word, 'troublesome', and that was a good enough reason to keep clear of her altogether.

However, duty called.

"Roark. Riley." Paul greeted them with nods.

The three stopped their conversation when they were joined by a fourth. The two men, Roark and Riley, developed genuine smiles, while the young brunette developed a wry smile of her own.

Neither man spoke, presumably waiting for Paul to add something to his greeting.

"Have either of you recently been contacted?"

Both men cleared their throats, just as the young woman's eyebrow twitched in frustration.

"What? No 'hello' for me? Not even a nod of acknowledgement?"

Paul's eyes fell on the girl.

As soon as his head turned away from her without a word, her knuckles jerked back and she tensed. "You lookin' to pick a fight, you purple mop-head?" she asked angrily, taking a few threatening steps toward him.

Roark and Riley both intervened.

"Easy, Melody. We're not here to start fights," Roark pleaded. Riley pitched in as well.

It worked, for now at least. The two sighed while the young woman, Melody, huffed and stepped back.

"Oh, and to answer your question, Paul, no," Riley eventually answered. "I'd imagine we were told the same thing you were – to meet in the Alto Mare Museum near the kabutops fossil at noon?"

Paul nodded, glancing down at the fossil tile.

"If I was sure I wouldn't find anything, I'd be getting pretty sick of our 'king' ordering us around." Melody started irately. "It's not like he's doing what _we're_ doing! He's barely even told us anything about what he's doing! I nearly drowned a week ago! Not to mention all the wild pokémon." Her attitude resonated with the two older individuals to some degree.

"You _did_ find something though, didn't you?" Riley retorted.

"…That's… Well, yeah, I did." Melody conceded. Her own mission did bear success.

"Still, she may be right. We didn't find anything too promising in Knot or Floe Island," Roark agreed. He shrugged off his backpack and fished out an object wrapped in cloth. He hushed his voice down so only their circle could hear. "We did find this though." Paul and Melody took the signal to ease in and peer into the opening in the cloth Roark made. Melody couldn't help but let out a gasp, while Paul raised his hat in equally stunned in silence.

The wrapped object was bigger than any of their fists, so the younger two could understand why Roark had not fully unraveled it. If it were shined on by a light, the brilliant red colouring of the large ruby would have left anyone speechless. Roark quickly wrapped it back up.

"I'm sure it could go for a good price somewhere," Riley spoke up as Roark put the ruby away. "But we're not looking for wealth here. We've got much more riding on our shoulders." Roark and Melody concurred.

"The sooner we hear from him, the better." Paul took this time to walk over to a pillar. With nothing perceivably better to do, he slipped his bag off, sat down and leant back on the stone support, covering his eyes with his hat.

The group quieted soon after. Their conversations were eventually going to end up leading to the matter of their contact's absence. It would have frustrated Paul, so he decided to wait calmly and patiently – that, and he was simply just tired. Melody, Riley and Roark decided it was a good lead to follow.

Melody took a seat on a bench on the opposite side of the pillar from Paul. Riley took a seat next to the girl and pulled out a lunchbox from his bag. Roark sat on another side of the pillar, unzipped his bag and pulled out a lunchbox as well. The two older members of their little group were better prepared for such occasions.

These four were on a shared mission of great importance, and it was times like these that they would take full advantage of. After all, every other day they were on the road. No rest for the weary, but this rare moment was an exception.

Paul felt a bump on his shoulder. He opened one eye and saw Roark offering him a wrapped sandwich.

"Thanks." He appreciated the offer, took it and quickly began eating.

Paul didn't know how long it would be until they would hear from their advocate – in a way, their 'employer' – but he did know it was good to take it easy once in a while to stop and think about things. He took this time to think about the three he was currently with.

Roark and Riley were older than he and Melody – more experienced, better traveled. They took the safer route of traveling together, having each other's backs in case something dangerous happens – something Paul didn't consider a very practical option with how he likes to operate. He believed anyone tagging along with him would only slow him down. But he had his pokémon – one in particular being the most intelligent, versatile creature he's ever known. He felt he was aptly equipped enough as it is, but when compared to a former-professional mineralogist, and gym leader and fossil digger, there wasn't much competition to deciding who would be more suited to their current work.

Then there was Melody – inexperienced, self-confident to a fault and easily emotional. These were all just his opinions though. There must have been some very redeeming qualities to her, or else she would not have been offered this job alongside him, Roark and Riley – the word 'alongside' being used very loosely in this case. As adventurous as she was and as skilled with pokémon as she may have been, as far as he knew, she wasn't the type to take the heaviest of matters into her own hands. She accepted any and all help without much confidentiality about her work, leading to Paul having some doubtful feelings for the girl being a necessity among the group. His mind was plagued by the thought of whether she was detrimental to their shared objective or not.

All four of them were still alive though, so it seemed things weren't all that bad.

It was several minutes of peace before Roark spotted someone they knew approaching them, along with another person.

"Ah, Samuel," Roark recognized the man, prompting Melody and Riley to poke their heads around the pillar. Paul remained motionless, nearly asleep under his cap.

"Sorry to take so long, everyone. I was instructed to bring along an associate," the maroon-haired young man said, signaling to the irate-looking fellow in overalls to his left. Melody, Riley and Roark all stood to greet the two. Samuel placed a large silver suitcase down beside him. "This is Lorenzo, curator of Alto Mare Museum. It was imperative he be involved in our meeting today, but it took a little persuading for him to come here."

"Pardon me if I'm not very tolerable of people in your 'line of work'," Lorenzo indignantly spoke. "I'm simply not a fan of grave digging or unwelcome treasure hunting."

The group was shocked by the man's attitude, but Roark took particular offense.

"'Scuse me, sir, my name's Roark. I'd like to clarify that what we do is nothing as bad as the things you may imagine." Riley nodded with his companion's statement.

Lorenzo's expression hardened. "From what I've been told, you people don't just explore certain places, but you've been taking objects that could be considered historic relics. Without proper consent and cultural research through the right channels, that is pure desecration in my eyes. Is it any different from stealing something from this museum right here and now?" Roark was taken aback by this.

"Call it what you will, sir, but we do our best not to disturb the places we travel to," Riley spoke as evenly and respectfully as possible. He tipped his hat in introduction. "Riley. My colleagues and I do our utmost to make sure the natural area and life forms remain undisturbed by our exploration and investigation. And, as you may know… it's for a worthy cause."

This practically put a stop to the argument altogether. Lorenzo was quick to shut his mouth, and no one else spoke a word for a while. Being reminded of their mission objective was always painful, especially to two members of this gathering.

Melody sighed in regret of her earlier outburst. "We may be chasing what might look like a bunch of fairytale MacGuffins," the others looked to her. "But you know what? If it helps put a stop to what's happening in Sinnoh… I'm all for a bit of rock-climbing and dungeon-crawling." She grinned. The four other men smiled at her uplifting declaration as well.

Paul took a glance at Melody from under his hat after he heard her. Inwardly, he whole-heartedly agreed. She had less than he had riding on her shoulders throughout all this, so he would be the _last_ to complain about what they were doing.

Paul covered his eyes under his hat again just before Melody turned to him, feeling someone's eyes on her. Samuel followed her glance.

"Oh, Paul, you _are_ here." He took a few steps towards him before stopping, wondering if he was actually asleep against the pillar. He continued walking as soon as he saw Paul's hand push his hat up from his eyes. "He wants to talk with you first," Samuel said, handing the young man a bulky satellite phone.

When Paul looked at it, the phone was already ringing the number. He put it to his ear until he heard it being picked up a few moments later.

"_Paul,_" the man on the other line spoke, expecting him.

"Brandon." Paul resisted the urge to sigh before saying his name, finally getting word from him.

"_We'll get right to the point, seeing as how you'd prefer we do. My sources have indicated a very strong power signature radiating from somewhere in Alto Mare. A few researchers under my employment have gathered records and reports on Alto Mare's water crisis which occurred many years ago. Samuel has an envelope for you with a basic outline on their findings._"

"Hm. Any ideas on where I should start looking?"

"_The reports have all the information we could acquire that you may need. I'm entrusting this task to you over the others._"

Paul looked to the group, who were talking amongst themselves. "Any special reason you picked me?"

"_Time is of the essence. I concluded that you would be most suited to this assignment. I'd like to hear back from you with your results within the week. If you can give me information beforehand, consider the rest of your week an R and R break – you four need your rest. Now, about what you found north of Cherrygrove City…_"

"No sign of a Celebi in there. The pictures and written reports I sent you were all the findings I thought would be of some worth."

"_But did you bring that hourglass with you?_" Paul noticed a rare tone of anxiety in Brandon's voice when he asked that.

"Yes, I did." Paul recalled the odd relic, stylized in the shape of a rather large hourglass. It was devoid of any sand, chipped in several places and wrapped securely in his backpack – to what end Brandon sought, he did not know. "I hope we're not wasting time with this. And I'd still like to know how you keep finding leads for us within several days of the last."

"_When you need to know, you'll know. Try not to concern yourself with those matters. Now, please put me on with young Melody and begin your own job. The sooner we have information on this power source in Alto Mare, the longer your much-needed break will be. Good luck._"

Paul moved the phone away before breathing a sigh. '_As distant and demanding as ever,_' he thought. "Melody." Paul stood and tossed the phone to the girl, who awkwardly caught it, then proceeded to Samuel, who was already unclipping the suitcase.

"Best of luck, Paul," Samuel wished him, handing over a brown envelope. From the thickness of it, Paul felt a few papers and likely some photos in the corner as well. In return, Paul dug out a tightly-wrapped object in the shape of a large hourglass from his bag and gave it to Brandon's worker. It was carefully placed into the suitcase's foam filling.

With that, Paul turned and began exiting the building.

"Paul!"

Before he was several steps away, he turned around after hearing Roark calling to him. He hadn't been paying too much attention to the man Lorenzo, but in the corner of his eye he saw Riley showing the aged man a part of the partially-unwrapped ruby. The museum curator must have been acquainted with Riley and Roark's find through Brandon. What it entailed was not any of Paul's business.

"Paul," Roark received his attention. "Samuel told us we've got the whole week off… Well, us three," he corrected, noticing the parcel under Paul's arm. "We were going to spend our time in Alto Mare together. You wanna join us for a little catching up later on?" he offered.

Paul rubbed his hair under his hat and sighed heavily. "I think these days on the road are catching up to me. I don't wanna expose my exhaustion, but I'd just like to finish this job and have some time to myself for a while." He turned and walked away, but stopped just short of the entrance. "Maybe for a lunch in a day or two."

Roark smiled. "I'm gonna hold you to it. Later, Paul."

With a hand raised in farewell, the purple-haired boy left the building. Adjusting his cap, he went down the stairs and decided looking for lodging would be his first priority. He'd look into his job more thoroughly sitting down in a room than outside.

As he crossed the wide stone bridge and went into the streets – or 'sidewalks by the waterways', as Alto Mare's construction would dictate – Paul decided to take a peek at one of the papers in the envelope.

Carefully opening it and pulling out one of the papers, he read what was on the top.

[AMG readings have not fluctuated at any recorded time in the past 15 days. Shows no signs of changing. Concluded to be in a safe, stable state.

Possibly protected or secured in a specific location by a third party.]

'AMG' must have been the code word used for whatever he was looking in to. He pulled out a bit more to read.

[Closest surveillance scans have detected more than one power signature of the same magnitude throughout Alto Mare.

Two appear to be very mobile during the day while one stays permanently motionless. This phenomenon's circumstances are unknown. Advise caution.]

Picking out one photo, he quickly skimmed it for memory. It was a printed thermographic image of what appeared to be a cluster of trees several yards away from a small bright circle, which was likely his target, surrounded by a darker patch that was likely a pond of water. The peculiar thing about it was that it was very white, which meant it was giving off a heat signature. Either that or Brandon's researcher's camera was broken.

"Oh!" Paul was stopped by a girl, hastily holding onto her artist's kit, that nearly crashed into him. "Sorry!" she quickly apologized, and continued her run down the street.

He steadied himself and was lucky to find nothing had spilled out of the parcel. He put the papers away, deciding not to risk losing any of them in a collision with a careless passerby.

It wasn't long before he heard a barking – an incessant barking that continued getting louder and louder. Paul stopped and turned to see a growlithe running up, to him out of all the people. When it got close enough, he saw the colour of its eyes, which were light blue.

The growlithe got his full attention, as he realized this pokémon was his.

"What is it?"

It paced back and forth in one particular direction. Paul realized that it wanted him to follow it somewhere.

"Is this really that important?"

The growlithe stopped jittering and became startlingly still. It nodded with a serious look in its eyes. Its trainer knew that it knew better than to waste his time.

"We're going to have to run, aren't we?" Paul stated in a deadpan tone.

The growlithe smirked and nodded.

Paul sighed. "I guess asking to sleep for a while is too much to ask."

He put the envelope carefully into his backpack and strapped it tighter to his back. He rolled his shoulders and looked down at his pokémon.

"Lead the way."

As soon as he said that, the growlithe made a mad dash down the street. Paul did his best to keep up so he wouldn't lose sight, carefully maneuvering his way past people at the same time. Growlithe's barks got people's attention, which gave them a bit more space between the two and oncoming pedestrian traffic. Narrowly sidestepping the slower or immobile individuals was quickly becoming a pain for Paul, while the pokémon's small stature let it run through and under people's legs easily.

They crossed a few bridges before the paths started to narrow and the waterways became smaller until they were gone. The number of people to dodge also lessened until there was practically no one around save for a few flying-type pokémon. The growlithe stopped at a corner and waited until Paul was close enough before sprinting off again.

Paul turned the corner but saw two men about to lift a large log up. The two stopped lifting to watch the pokémon jump over and scurry away, and then continued lifting.

"Hey!" Paul yelled out.

The men stopped midway when they saw a boy run up and vault over the log they were holding. He didn't lose a bit of speed as he nimbly landed and kept on running. The two men strained and finally let the log drop with a thud.

A few more turns and Paul finally caught up with the growlithe, who was sniffing the air in between two intersecting pathways.

There were three paths to choose from now. Paul spoke, slightly short of breath. "You better know where you're going."

No sooner after he said that did the growlithe dash off again, Paul giving chase. They ran over another bridge, passing by a person rowing a gondola and a few cawing pokémon.

Another short bridge was coming up, but the growlithe rumbled, as their specific path was straight up ahead. Instead of running to the far side for the bridge, the growlithe leapt into the air, flashed a pink glow and appeared to transform into a spearow to glide over. It flashed and transformed back into a growlithe as it landed on the other side, sprinting off again.

Paul also leapt the canal from atop a railing, landing his feet on the opposite side's edge and hopping over the railing to keep following.

"I told you not to do that out in public!" he yelled to his pokémon ahead.

A few more tight turns down a darker set of pathways eventually lead to an arching trellis framing vines and flowers. Paul slowed down for a moment under the artistically-fashioned greenery, before continuing to trail his growlithe. He stopped at a fountain and then turned to see his growlithe at a darkened corner of a wall.

The growlithe turned to the wall and pointed at it with its nose.

Paul threw it an apprehensive look. "What are yo-"

Paul lost the sense to speak another word when he saw Growlithe walk through the wall.

He was absolutely shocked, but pressed on, slower than he would have liked to admit. It was a startling discovery, but it was definitely something worth a look. He put a hand through the wall, feeling only a very faint sense of gravity around it. He steadied his breath and walked into the wall.

Walking through darkness for a moment, he soon found his way back to an area of light, and to another very shocking discovery.

The entire, massive area was filled with lush green trees and bushes. The trees were tall enough to have been there for decades. Stone footpaths divided the grass and gardens from several ponds, which were filled with a few water pokémon. There were several abstract statues and even a large, luxurious fountain off in the distance. It was a breathtaking sight to behold.

But Paul believed something was suspicious about the garden, if not only for the fact that it was behind such a mysterious entrance – a ghost-like doorway through a wall leading to a place like this _cried_ suspicious.

"Out of sight. Go," he instructed his growlithe next to him.

With a nod, the pokémon flashed a bright pink, turned into a murkrow and flew up into the trees.

Checking his phone for the time and putting it back into his pocket, he quickly pulled out his small leather-bound book with a pencil attached. Turning to a fresh page, he scribbled down a few notes about his find, before closing it and pocketing it again.

The young man took quick strides down the paths, turning every which way to determine if there was any danger or anything of value to investigate. Walking towards the large fountain, something clicked in his mind. He extracted the parcel he received from Samuel and pulled out the photo he looked at earlier. As he suspected – by mapping the area with his eyes – the thermographic image of the trees were all around the very fountain he was walking towards. And that meant the small circle was…

Paul put the papers away and into his backpack again when he realized his pokémon may have just saved him hours, or even days of work.

Making his way up the bending stone steps, he reached a cleared area that had some strange markings on the floor. He walked over to them and inspected them. The few dozen stone tiles each depicted different images, but the figure of a bird-like creature appeared predominantly in most of them. Paul narrowed his eyes at the shapes, remembering seeing something similar somewhere. He didn't delve too deeply into it, because he knew he was merely feet away from his next job's objective.

He turned and walked to the centerpiece of the area, where the water was flowing from. Up the steps, he bent forward and looked into the small pool.

There, in the center of the water on a pedestal, was a sparkling blue orb. Paul had never seen anything like it. As he stared at it longer, he couldn't shake the lingering feeling that it was… alive somehow. Nevertheless, he had a job to do.

He reached up to grab it, but suddenly heard a rattling noise coming from a few spinning pieces on a statues.

He furrowed his expression at the sound. '_Where'd that wind come fro-_'

"Grgh!"

Paul suddenly felt a strain over his entire body. He couldn't move a muscle. Soon, he was floating in the air, struggling to move even the slightest.

He was then hurled backward from the pool at an incredible speed until he hit a tree trunk. The blow was painful and he felt the wind knocked out of him as he gasped in pain. His hat and book both fell to the ground. He felt like he was about to lose consciousness as he was falling, but he caught himself and landed on his knee and hand on the ground.

He was breathing heavily and his muscles ached, but he used his strength to look up and see something that paralyzed him in disbelief.

Floating in front of him was a blue and grey pokémon with no legs and an odd set of pointed wings. It bore a hole through Paul with its sharp red eyes. The stream-lined pokémon cried loudly in a sharp tone that nearly hurt Paul's ears.

It finally came to him – this pokémon was in the same shape as the statues he saw on the pillars earlier, as well as the figures in the stone tiles.

He carefully, gradually picked up his book and hat, and then pulled out his pokédex and scanned the pokémon before him. Warily moving his eyes from the creature to his pokédex, he put the device away after reading the information he needed.

He ran through it in his mind. '_Classified types – psychic, dragon. Classified location – unknown._'

"_A pokémon of legend…_" he spoke under his breath.

Paul soon developed, of all things, a grin – a crooked, worrisome grin, which Latios sharpened its stare at. Something was unnerving about this human.

The grin was suddenly lost.

Reaching into his back pocket, all he needed to do was click a button and toss a ball from behind his back to unleash one of his pokémon from a pokéball.

Latios tensed at the new arrival – a black and red pokémon with sharp claws and a large headdress.

"Weavile!" the pokémon growled, taking an offensive stance as it caught sight of the flying pokémon.

Latios was not to be intimidated, as he cried out, giving the human and his pokémon one last warning before he would attack.

Paul scoffed.

"Down here! Now! Double-team battle!"

Paul's shouts were answered by a ball of pink light dropping from the trees. As it landed on the ground, the light disappeared, revealing another weavile. The two copies looked at each other with matching smirks.

"Psychic and dragon-type. Likely very fast. Keep it in close combat, leave no traces or damages," he warned the duo. "But this time is different. This isn't reconnaissance. I don't want you two to just keep it busy." This surprised his pokémon. "I want you to take it down, because I want to catch this one… Go!"

Within a second, the two weavile were already a few feet in front of Latios, claws glowing a dark purple. The dragon pokémon flew back at a matching speed to dodge. Opening his mouth, he charged and fired a green-blue sphere at the pair. They nimbly dodged the attack that blew a puff of smoke up, cartwheeling away in unison. Charging up their own attacks, the two weavile blasted forth ringed beams of dark energy. Latios dropped down from the air to dodge the two, as they collided in the air.

Paul and the weavile were all shocked when Latios was suddenly concealed by a clear covering. The pokémon had completely vanished from sight.

Paul growled. "Foresight! When you see it move in, counter-attack!"

As the two dark pokémon jumped and stood back-to-back in preparation, one of the weavile's eyes shined a bright blue, letting it scan the area for any invisible or illusory threat. The two kept themselves together as the one searching the area continued to look.

It then saw its enemy flying straight towards them. With a quick growl of communication, the two pulled apart and sent black balls of energy at where they were standing. The attacks hit, weakening Latios to drop his illusory shield down, and he skidded over the ground in pain. Just as he stopped, he hastily began flying back up, cloaking himself again.

The weavile, however, were quick to act this time. Just as Latios began flying away, one weavile, dropping from the air, landed a direct hit with its Shadow Claw attack. Just as it was charging a Shadow Ball with its other hand, Latios recovered from the hit amazingly quickly and retaliated with another green-blue sphere of energy.

The attack landed and the weavile was sent flying upward. Just as its body started glowing pink, it was concealed by the tree branches. Latios saw this and was confused, but he suddenly felt a chilling ice-type attack hit his side. The other weavile kept the attack up until Latios moved from his position. He felt slower as he moved – a secondary effect from the particular attack, Icy Wind.

Bringing its attention to the weavile on the ground, Latios fired a devastatingly fast Dragon Pulse. Weavile completely blocked the attack with a green shield around its body, anticipating the ranged attack.

But what neither pokémon anticipated was the two Shadow Balls that flew down from the trees above. The attacks shocked and hit Latios, making it cry out and staggering him for a moment. His pain was worsened when he felt a Shadow Ball hit his chest, fired from the weavile on the ground. With his strength weakening, Latios could only focus on cloaking itself and falling back. But his plan was abruptly cut-off.

Latios felt a pain shoot out from his back when he felt a pair of feet drop onto him. He turned his head to see a large, monstrous blue dragon on his back, right before they finally hit the ground in a painful crash. With the red-winged dragon on top of him and the weavile swiftly moving to their side and aiming its glowing claw at his head, Latios would have had to admit his defeat in this situation. He still had some fight left in him, but his struggles under the larger pokémon's weight were stopped when he heard footsteps approaching them.

Latios raised his eyes and met the face of the human that had arrived in his home's garden. The boy neither smiled nor frowned at the immobilized pokémon. Now that he had time, he took his pokédex out and did a thorough scan of the legendary pokémon. Once it was done, he was pleased with what he found.

"You could definitely be useful," Paul said.

Latios growled, understanding what the human meant. He saw a red and white ball in the human's hand.

Paul ran his fingers over the pokéball in his hand, savoring the capture of such a powerful pokémon. His jobs, his objectives – his _life goal_ would be much easier with this latios in his team.

Raising his hand to toss the ball at the pokémon, his action was stopped by a voice.

"Stop!"

Paul ceased all movement and turned to see a newly-arrived pair several yards away on a hill. One was a brown-haired young woman, holding her hand out defiantly. Her eyes were full of worry and dread at what she was seeing.

The other was a white and red pokémon floating next to the girl. Her form was nearly the exact same as the latios. She hovered there, frozen in as much shock and fear as the girl, if not more.

Paul was about to disregard the two, but he noticed something.

Something on the pokémon's face. In its eyes. It was just about to… cry.

It hit Paul hard when he realized that the pokémon was staring at the latios.

The pain in the pokémon's eyes… that fear of losing someone close… it was all too familiar to him.

His arm shook, slowly lowered and then fell limp, letting the pokéball drop to the ground. His pokémon looked at him, confused and unsure.

Paul soon dropped to his knees and hands, where he stared at the ground in the worst remorse he had ever felt, shaken to his core by what he was just about to do.

* * *

**Alright! I know that most of you are confused with Paul's part in the story, but it will begin to make sense! Just bare with us for now! Haha**

**This will be the last chapter that deals with main the plot, In Ash's section, for now. Meaning the next few chapters are mostly them journeying around, catching pokemon, battles, and bonding with each other! **

**I hope you all enjoyed~ Leave a review with your thoughts! I love hearing what you all think!**

**~Ohaeder. **


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